BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 


THE  1  [BRARY 


'HE  UNIVERSITY 


OF  CALIFORNIA 


cThe  French  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  and  Spanish 
explorations  and  colonization;  excerpt  from  v.  2  of 
A  popular  history  of  the  United  States,  by  William 
Cullen  Bryant  and  Sydney  Howard  Ga3   cNew  York, 
C.  Scribner's  son§  cl878a 


1681.] 


WILLIAM   PENN. 


to  produce."  Penn's  retorts  were  so  sharp  that  the  tolerably  well 
disposed  Mayor  ordered  him  into  the  bail-dock,  a  felon's  dirty  place  in 
the  purlieus  of  the  court  room  ;  and  Mead  conducted  himself  with 
such  steadiness  that  he  soon  followed.  The  jury,  though  vigorously 
bullied  by  the  Recorder,  brought  in  the  simple  verdict,  "  Guilty  of 
speaking  in  Grace  Church  Street."  Sent  out  again,  they  soon  returned 
with  the  same  verdict.  But  this  did  not  suit  the  court.  The  jury 
was  shut  up  and  watched  overnight,  without  meat,  drink,  fire,  or  any 


Trial  of  William   Penn. 


other  accommodation.  The  next  morning  it  returned  the  same  ver 
dict.  Again  it  was  angrily  sent  out,  only  to  return  with  the  original 
verdict.  This  happened  twice  more,  the  trial  lasting  till  September 
fifth,  and  Penn  and  Mead  being  transferred  to  Newgate  Avhile  it  was 
pending,  and  the  oostinate  jury  being  shut  up  without  food  or  drink. 
When  at  last  the  original  verdict  was  rendered,  each  juror  was  fined 
forty  marks  for  following  his  own  opinion,  and  Penn  and  Mead  sent 
to  Newgate  till  each  paid  his  forty  marks  for  having  his  hat  reset 


b 


486  COLONIZATION  BY  FRIENDS.  [€HAP.  XX. 

upon  his  head.  Such  was  the  tolerated  spite  and  injustice  of  that 
interval  of  persecution.1 

Soon  after  the  trial  at  the  Old  Bailey,  Penn's  father  died,  as  it  ap 
pears  under  great  concern  of  mind  at  a  tardy  recognition  of  his  son's 
courage  and  virtue.  After  taking  the  final  leave  of  the  household, 
Death  of  the  ^e  sa^  :  "  S°n  William,  I  charge  you  do  nothing  against 
your  conscience  :  if  you  and  your  friends  keep  to  your  plain 
way  of  preaching,  and  keep  to  your  plain  way  of  living,  you  will 
make  an  end  of  the  priests,  to  the  end  of  the  world." 

In  1671,  Penn  was  again  in  Newgate  for  six  months  for  being  pres 
ent  at  a  Friends'  meeting.  After  his  release,  he  went  on  a  religious 
mission  to  Holland  and  Germany,  with  Robert  Barclay,  author  of  the 
famous  "  Apology,"  and  George  Fox.  His  interviews  with  the  sus 
ceptible  Princess  Elizabeth  of  Germany  are  memorable  in  the  annals 
of  Quakerism. 

Among  the  effects  of  his  father,  Penn  had  inherited  a  claim  against 
Penn's  claim  *ne  Crown  f or  arrears  of  the  Admiral's  pay,  and  for  various 
crown*. th°  loans  to  the  Admiralty.  What  with  principal  and  interest, 
HIS  proposal.  it  amounted  in  1681  to  £16,000,  a  sum  which,  in  the 
money  value  of  to-day,  would  be  a  very  large  one.  Penn  proposed 
to  the  government  to  liquidate  this  debt  by  a  grant  to  him  of  terri 
tory  in  America.  Those  members  of  the  Privy  Council  who  were 
hostile  to  the  views  of  Quakerism  relative  to  the  Church  and  State, 
strongly  opposed  the  grant.  But  even  the  Duke  of  York,  with  whom 
he  had  been  lately  in  controversy,  favored  his  petition,  mindful  per 
haps  of  the  Admiral's  great  service  to  him  in  the  tight  pinch  of  the 
naval  battle.  The  Duke  might  have  preferred  to  extend  his  own 
province  of  New  York  farther  to  the  southward. 

Penn  was  well  skilled  in  the  methods  of  courts,  and  knew  when  to 
wait,  when  to  persist,  how  smoothly  to  deal  with  the  men  of  influence, 
in  order  to  prefer  his  claim.  The  treasury  also  was  empty,  and  the 
King  thought  he  would  be  well  rid  of  a  debt  of  £16,000  for  many 
square  miles  of  wilderness  peopled  only  by  Indians.  The  Lords'  Com 
mittee  of  Colonies,  the  Board  of  Trade,  were  quite  contemptuous 

1  Eighty  years  later,  on  June  7,  1753,  a  Quakeress  managed  to  get  into  the  House  of 
Lords,  and  reprehended  the  Peers  on  account  of  some  fashionable  excesses  in  dress  and 
amusements.  The  Monthly  Review  said  :  "  She  was  indulged  with  the  attention  of  the 
House."  During  the  French  Revolution,  a  Quaker  preferred  to  keep  on  his  hat  in  the 
tribune  when  he  was  present  at  a  sitting  of  the  Council  of  Ancients.  It  was  the  Presi 
dent's  opinion  that  the  Council,  by  allowing  him  to  remain  with  it  on,  would  give  a  proof 
of  its  respect  for  the  freedom  of  religious  opinions.  But  the  order  of  the  day  was  carried 
upon  a  very  sensible  remark  by  Rousseau,  who  said  :  "  He  may  come  with  his  coat  but 
toned  after  the  fashion  of  the  Quakers,  if  he  pleases,  but  let  him  take  off  his  hat  or  stay 
away.  If  the  delicacy  of  his  conscience  cannot  yield  to  his  curiosity,  let  him  make  his 
curiosity  yield  to  the  delicacy  of  his  conscience." 


1681.]  THE   GRANT   OF   PENNSYLVANIA.  487 

over  the  idea  of  establishing  over  Indians,  and  amid  foreign  rivalries, 
a  set  of  non-resistants.  But  a  very  cogent  address  in  Council  by 
Penn's  chief  advocate,  clearing  up  the  anti-governmental,  anti-priest, 
and  anti-royal  principles  of  the  Friends,  prevailed.  Chief  Justice 
North  was  appointed  to  draw  up  a  charter,  with  specifications  of 
boundaries,  which  was  signed  March  4,  1681.  In  considera 
tion  of  two  beaver-skins  annually,  and  a  fifth  part  of  all  the  of  Pennsyi- 
gold  and  silver  that  might  be  mined,  the  King  granted  to 
Penn  a  territory  of  forty  thousand  square  miles.  This  monarch  was 
nothing  if  not  merry  ;  he  must  be  allowed  his  sport.  "  Here,"  said 
he,  "  I  am  doing  well  in  granting  all  these  coasts,  seas,  bays,  etc.,  to 
such  a  fighting  man  as  you  are.  But  you  must  promise  not  to  take 
to  scalping.  And  will  you  practise  entire  toleration  toward  all  mem 
bers  of  the  Church  of  England  ?  "  To  which,  of  course,  Penn  readily 
assented.  As  regards  the  scalping,  a  striking  decline  from  the  prin 
ciples  of  his  father  was  shown  by  the  grandson  of  Penn,  who  pro 
claimed  in  July,  1764,  that  for  every  male  Indian  above  the  age  of 
ten  who  was  captured,  a  bounty  of  $150  should  be  paid ;  for  every 
male  killed  and  scalped,  $134 ;  for  every  one  thus  served  under  ten, 
$130  ;  for  every  female  killed  and  scalped,  $50.  But  Penn's  descend 
ants  had  then  long  ceased  to  be  Friends,  and  the  frontier  influence 
of  the  French  among  the  Indians  was  of  the  most  murderous  kind. 

The  King  had  called  the  new  territory,  thus  granted,  Pennsylvania. 
But  Penn,  whose  family  originated  in  Wales,  had  intended 
to  call  it  New  Wales.     In  the  conference  with  the  Secre-  territory 
tary,  who  handed  him  the  charter,  he  objected  to  the  King's 
designation,  and  tried  to  prevail  upon  the  Secretary  to  substitute  his 
own,  even  offering  him,  when  he  proved  stubborn,  twenty  guineas  to 
alter  it.     But  the  Secretary  could  not  overcome  his  sense  of  duty. 
Upon  referring  the  matter  to  the  King,  with  the  compromise  of  Syl- 
vania,  the  King  said,  "  No.    I  am  godfather  to  the  territory,  and  will 
bestow  its  name." 

Penn's  proprietary  jurisdiction  thus  made  secure,  he  issued  a  far- 
sighted  and  liberal  advertisement  of  the  inducements  for 
emigration,  which  particularly  addressed  the  Quaker  dispo-   PM*^** 
sition.     His  scheme  of  administration  is  too  long  to  repro-   emigrante- 
duce  entire :  but  two  or  three  special  traits  of  it  deserve  emphasis. 
He  declared  that  he  wished  to  establish  a  just  and  righteous  govern 
ment  in  his  province,  that  others  might  take  example  by  it.    In  Eng 
land  there  was  not  room  for  such  a  holy  experiment.     Government 
is  a  part  of  religion  itself,  a  thing  sacred  in  its  institution  and  end. 
Any  government  is  free  to  the  people  under  it,  whatever  be  the  frame, 
where  the  laws  rule,  and  the  people  are  a  party  to  those  laws.     Gov- 


488  COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS.  [CHAP.  XX. 

ernments  depend  upon  men,  not  men  upon  governments.  The  first 
principle  of  Penn's  new  code  recognized  liberty  of  conscience ;  all 
persons  acknowledging  the  one  Eternal  God,  living  peaceably  and 
justly,  were  not  to  be  molested  or  prejudiced  in  matters  of  faith  and 
worship. 

Penn  went  further  than  this  ;  with  the  sad  example  of  New  Eng 
land  experience  in  his  thought,  he  added  that  nobody  shall  be  com 
pelled  at  any  time  to  frequent  or  maintain  any  religious  worship, 
place,  or  ministry  whatsoever.  Only  murder  and  treason  were  to  be 
punishable  by  death.  That,  at  least,  was  insisted  upon  by  Chief  Jus 
tice  North.  But  while  Penn  lived,  no  gallows  was  erected  in  his 
province.  He  said  that  a  prison  must  be  converted  into  a  school  of 
reformation  and  education  ;  that  litigation  ought  to  give  way  to  some 
regularly  appointed  arbitration  ;  that  an  oath  was  a  superfluity ;  so, 
also,  were  cock-pits,  bull-baiting,  card-playing,  theatres,  and  drunken 
ness.  Lying  was  punishable  as  a  crime.  This,  indeed,  went  to  the 
root  of  the  matter,  for  all  nations  from  the  earliest  times  have  acknowl 
edged  that  a  lie  is  the  parent  of  a  horde  of  vices.  Trial  by  jury  was 
established,  and  in  all  cases  which  involved  an  Indian,  the  jury  must 
be  composed  of  six  whites  and  six  natives,  and  whenever  a  planter 
conceived  that  he  was  injured  in  person  or  property  by  a  native  he 
must  not  take  the  law  into  his  own  hands,  but  apply  to  a  magistrate, 
and  the  latter  must  confer  with  the  native's  sachem.  The  person  of 
the  Indian  was  declared  to  be  sacred. 

Penn  advertised  the  land  in  his  province  at  forty  shillings  per 
hundred  acres,  and  even  servants  could  hold  fifty  acres  in  fee  simple. 
"  Still,"  said  he  to  the  Friends,  eager  to  enter  upon  their  new  homes, 
"  let  no  one  move  rashly,  but  have  an  eye  to  the  Providence  of  God." 
So  great  was  his  reputation  in  Europe  that  he  attracted  many  emi 
grants  from  its  countries,  mainly  from  Germany,  and  recruited  from 
the  soberest  and  thriftiest  kind.  A  German  Company,  under  the 
guidance  of  Franz  Pastorius,1  bought  fifteen  thousand  acres. 

Three  vessels  came  over  in  1681.  One  of  them  was  frozen  in  at 
Early  set-  Chester,  and  the  passengers  could  get  no  further.  They 
tiew.  were  obliged  to  dig  caves  in  the  river  bank  and  live  in  them. 

This  was  a  common  expedient  with  the  earliest  settlers,  and  at  a  later 
period  Penn  complained  of  the  liquor  drinking  and  excesses  in  the 
caves.  It  had  always  been  his  object  to  live  in  his  province  and 
manage  his  affairs.  When  the  ship  in  which  he  intended  to  embark 

1  See  a  German  pamphlet  in  the  library  of  Harvard  College,  by  Fr.  Daniel  Pastorius,  "  a 
geographical  statistical  Description  of  the  Province  of  Pennsylvania."  It  contains  the 
events  which  occurred  from  1683  to  1699.  At  the  time  of  writing  it  he  was  chief  magis 
trate  at  Germantown. 


1G82.] 


PENN'S   VOYAGE. 


489 


was  nearly  ready,  he  requested  an  audience  of  the  King.  Said 
Charles,  "It  will  not  be  long  before  I  hear  that  you  have  Pennand 
gone  into  the  savages'  war  kettle :  what  is  to  prevent  it?"  theKms- 
"  Their  own  inner  light,"  said  Penn.  "  Moreover,  as  I  intend  equitably 
to  buy  their  lands,  I  shall  not  be  molested."  "  Buy  their  lands ! 
Why,  is  not  the  whole  land  mine?"  "No,  your  majesty,  we  have 
no  right  to  their  lands  ;  they  are  the  original  occupants  of  the  soil." 
"  What !  have  I  not  the  right  of  discovery  ?  "  "  Well,  just  suppose 
that  a  canoe  full  of  savages  should  by  some  accident  discover  Great 
Britain.  Would  you  vacate  or  sell?"  The  King  was  astonished  at 
the  retort,  and  no  less  at  the  policy  which  soon  bore  such  admirable 


Chester,    Pennsylvania. 

fruit  that  was  unfertilized  by  blood.  New  England  began  by  trying 
to  convert  the  Indian,  taking  in  the  mean  time  his  land  in  the  name 
of  the  Gospel.  Penn  began  by  paying  for  the  land  and  solemnly 
treating  with  the  Indian  that  he  might  thus  possibly  convert  him. 

After  his  visit  to  the  King,  Penn  passed  a  day  with  his  family  at 
Worminghurst,  engaged  in  devout  exercises  and  domestic  converse. 
He  left  there  a  truly  Christian  document  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to 
his  family,  which  was  at  the  same  time  an  address  to  all  who  professed 
the  opinions  of  Friends.  On  September  1,  1682,  he  set 
sail  in  the  ship  Welcome,  a  name  as  propitious  as  May-  voyage  to 

..         ..         .*       America. 

flower,   with    a   hundred    passengers,    nearly    all    or    whom 

were  Friends  from  his  own  county  of   Sussex.     Robert  Greenaway 


490  COLONIZATION  BY  FRIENDS.  [CHAP.  XX. 

was  the  commander.  The  uncomfortable  voyage  lasted  six  weeks, 
during  which  thirty  of  the  passengers  died  of  the  small-pox.  One 
day  the  captain  saw  a  ship  which  appeared  to  be  in  pursuit  of  his 
own,  and  took  her  to  be  an  enemy.  He  made  every  preparation  for 
resistance,  and  manned  his  guns.  Then  addressing  the  non.-resistant 
Quakers,  he  advised  them  to  take  refuge  in  the  cabin.  Penn  and  the 
rest  did  so,  excepting  James  Logan,  his  private  secretary.  Logan 
stayed  on  deck  and  took  his  station  at  a  gun.  When  the  strange  sail 
came  near  it  proved  to  be  a  friendly  one.  Penn  came  on  deck  and 
severely  rebuked  Logan  for  remaining  to  fight.  Said  Logan,  "  I 
being  thy  secretary,  why  didst  thou  not  order  me  to  come  down? 
But  thou  wert  willing  enough  that  I  should  stay  and  help  to  fight 
the  ship  when  thou  thought  there  was  danger." 

At  length  the  Delaware  was  reached,  and  a  landing  was  made  at 
The  landing  Newcastle  on  the  27th  of  October.  The  Dutch  and  Swedes 
SasuT"  Save  th®  heartiest  welcome  to  their  new  Governor.  His 
first  act  was  to  naturalize  all  these  inhabitants  of  the  prov 
ince.  They  were  summoned  to  the  court-house  and  addressed  by 
Penn  on  the  true  nature  and  functions  of  government.  The  commis 
sions  of  all  the  existing  magistrates  were  renewed.  Then  he  went 
up  the  river  to  Upland,  now  Chester,  and  met  the  delegates  who  had 
been  already  selected  by  his  Commissioners  to  compose  the  first  As 
sembly.  Their  first  session,  held  in  the  Friends'  Meeting  House, 
lasted  only  four  days,  much  time  being  saved  by  the  admirable  rule 
which  was  adopted,  that  "  none  speak  but  once  before  the  question  is 
put,  nor  after,  but  once ;  and  that  none  fall  from  the  matter  to  the 
person,  and  that  superfluous  and  tedious  speeches  may  be  stopped 
by  the  Speaker."  So  the  Quaker  principle  of  freedom  of  utterance 
as  the  spirit  prompted,  was  judiciously  balanced.  No  four  days  of 
Plenty  and  legislative  work  were  ever  more  harmoniously  spent  in  lay- 
p^Myi-ym  mg  tne  foundations  of  society.  Penn's  own  sincere  tem 
per  was  imparted  to  all.  "  As  to  outward  things  we  are 
satisfied ;  the  land  good,  the  air  clear  and  sweet,  the  springs  plentiful, 
and  provision  good  and  easy  to  come  at ;  an  innumerable  quantity 
of  wild-fowl  and  fish  ;  in  fine,  here  is  what  an  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob  would  be  well  contented  with."  l 

1  The  wild  turkeys  sometimes  turned  the  scale  at  forty-six  pounds  ;  one  of  thirty  pounds 
sold  for  a  shilling,  a  deer  for  two  shillings.  One  settler  bought  a  fat  buck  for  two  gills  of 
gunpowder.  Wild  pigeons  could  be  killed  with  sticks,  apparently  too  numerous  to  get  out 
of  the  way.  Six  rock-cod  cost  twelve  pence,  salt  fish  three  farthings'  a  pound.  "  Peaches 
by  cart-loads,"  said  one  letter  writer  :  "  the  Indians  bring  us  seven  or  eight  fat  bucks  a  day. 
Without  rod  or  net  we  catch  abundance  of  herrings,  after  the  Indian  manner,  in  penfolds." 
There  were  plenty  of  swans,  and  oysters  six  inches  long.  But  all  this  was  true  of  nearly 
all  the  more  southern  settlements  in  the  earlier  years. 


1682.] 


PHILADELPHIA   FOUNDED. 


491 


In  good  years  the  farmer  gathered  twenty  or  thirty  bushels  of  wheat 
for  every  one  he  sowed.  A  native  grape  grew  in  great  abundance, 
and  yielded  an  excellent  wine.  The  woods  and  meadows  swarmed 
with  all  kinds  of  wild  berries ;  and  the  settlers  soon  had  their  various 
fruit  trees  and  bushes,  melons  planted,  their  presses  started,  and  perry, 
cider,  etc.,  running  from  them.  The  natives  were  always  hospitable, 
well  inclined  to  barter  because  never  overreached.  Great  plenty 
ruled  in  this  province  from  the  beginning.  If  the  Dutch  and  Swedes 
had  suffered  from  hunger  and 
want  on  the  banks  of  the  Dela 
ware,  it  was  their  own  fault.1 

At  first  Penn  instructed  his 
Commissioners    who    came    in 


Penn's  Address  at   Newcastle. 


,  to  examine  the  neighborhood  of  Upland  to  find  a  suitable  site 
for  a  town  ;  but  when  he  went  up  the  river  he  pitched  upon  Phiiadelphia 
the  broad  peninsula  that  lay  between  the  Delaware  and  the  founded- 
Schuylkill.     Here  he  projected  a  city  upon  a  great  scale  of  squares, 
streets  with  avenues  of  trees  —  some  of  which  still  preserve  the  names 

1  A  planter,  writing  before  1696,  gave  the  following  rates  of  wages  :  Carpenters,  brick 
layers,  and  masons,  six  shillings  a  day  ;  shoemakers,  two  shillings  on  each  pair  ;  journey 
men  tailors,  twelve  shillings  a  week  and  their  diet  ;  weavers,  ten  pence  a  yard  ;  wool-comb 
ers,  twelve  pence  a  pound  ;  potters,  sixteen  pence  for  a  pot  which  cost  in  England  only  four 
pence  ;  brick  makers,  twenty  shillings  per  thousand  of  bricks  at  the  kiln  ;  hatters,  seven 
shillings  for  a  hat  ;  all  other  trades,  of  which  every  conceivable  kind  was  pursued  in  the 
province,  making  it  quite  independent  of  the  mother  country,  were  rewarded  in  the  same 
proportion.  All  kinds  of  food  were  much  cheaper  than  in  England  ;  and  the  Barbadoes 
furnished  a  constant  market  for  corn.  Laboring  men  earned  fourteen  pounds  a  year,  with 
meat,  drink,  washing,  and  lodging  ;  maid-servants  ten  pounds  a  year.  Floating  mills  for 
grinding  corn  took  advantage  of  the  river's  current,  and  on  the  land  horse-mills  were  used. 


492 


COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS. 


of  the  original  trees  —  and  houses  to  be  surrounded  with  gardens. 
Before  houses  could  be  built  the  settlers  lived  in  huts,  and  in  caves 
which  were  excavations  in  the  river  bank  arched  over  with  branches 
and  sodded.  The  chimneys  were  built  of  clay  strengthened  with 
grass.  One  house  was  in  process  of  building  by  a  man  with  the 
happy  name  of  Guest.  Penn's  first  landing  was  made  at  Dock  Creek 
opposite  this  unfinished  house,  which  was  afterwards  known  as  the 
Blue  Anchor  Tavern.  The  first  keeper  of  the  tavern  was  Guest,  and 
a  long  line  of  hospitable  Friends  succeeded  him.  Beyond  Guest's 
house,  ten  others  were  soon  built  in  the  old  English  fashion,  of  frames 


,_i^K*W«.  •     „, 

>"V^**' 


Letitia  Cottage,    Philadelphia,   supposed   First   Residence  of   Penn. 

filled  in  with  brick,  and  called  "•  Budd's  Long  Row."  The  tavern 
"was  but  about  twelve  feet  front,"  says  Watson  in  his  copious 
"  Annals,"  "  on  Front  Street,  and  about  twenty-two  feet  on  Dock 
Street,  having  a  ceiling  of  about  eight  and  a  half  feet  in  height,"  A 
little  cottage,  built  by  one  Drinker,  who  settled  on  this  site  alone 
several  years  before  the  arrival  of  Penn,  was  the  first  habitation  on 
the  site  of  Philadelphia.  Penn  meant  to  convey  to  the  settlers  by 
the  name  of  his  new  city  the  disposition  which  he  hoped  would  pre 
vail  within  its  walls. 

In  this  year  of  Penn's  landing  twenty-three  ships  filled  with  col 
onists  came  up  the  Delaware.  In  less  than  a  year  eighty  houses  and 
cottages  were  built,  three  hundred  farms  laid  out,  and  bounteous  crops 


1682.] 


TREATY  WITH  THE   INDIANS. 


493 


secured.     In  1684,  there  were  three  hundred  and  fifty-seven  houses, 

"  large  and  well  built,  with  cellars,"  and  fifty  townships  had 

been  settled.     In  1685,  there  were  six  hundred  houses.     In  crease  of 

,  ,  ,  ,  ,    settlers. 

one  year  ninety  ships  brought  more  than   seven   thousand 
people  into  his  province. 

A  treaty  had  been  made  with  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  neighbor 
hood,  which  only  required  to  be  ratified  before  the  Governor.  A 
scene,  October  14,  1682,  which  history  has  made  memor- 

i  ,  -  .  .       Penn's 

able,  took  place  under  the  spreading  branches  or  an  Amen-  Indian 
can  elm,  at  Shackamaxon,  or  Sakimaxing,  "  place  of  kings," 
an  old  resort  for  Indian  councils.  The  Indians  met  Penn  at  "  the 
half-way  house,"  that  is,  at  noon.  They  were  tribes  of  the  Lenni 
L  en  ape,  a  nation 
which  long  ago 
had  its  seat  beyond 
the  Alleghanies, 
whence  it  migrated 
to  the  Hudson  and 
D  e  la  war  e .  Their 
tribal  names  were 
derived  from  the 
creeks  and  rivers  of 
their  territory,  as 
Raritan,  Assunpink, 
Mingo,  Navesink. 
They  were  of  a  war 
like  disposition,  and 
falling  into  frequent 
fights  with  Indian 
neighbors.  Penn  described  them  well,  with  a  few  strokes:  '-They 
are  tall,  straight,  tread  strong  and  clever,  and  walk  with  a  lofty  chin. 
Their  custom  of  rubbing  the  body  with  bear's  fat,  gives  them  a 
swarthy  color.  They  have  little  black  eyes.  Their  heads  and  coun 
tenances  have  nothing  of  the  negro  type,  and  I  have  seen  as  comely 
European-like  faces  among  them  as  on  your  side  the  sea.  Their  lan 
guage  is  lofty,  yet  narrow ;  like  short-hand  in  writing,  one  word  serveth 
in  the  place  of  three,  and  the  rest  are  supplied  by  the  understanding 
of  the  hearer.  I  have  made  it  my  business  to  understand  it,  that  I 
might  not  want  an  interpreter  on  any  occasion.  In  liberality,  they 
excel ;  nothing  is  too  good  for  their  friend ;  give  them  a  fine  gun, 
coat,  or  other  thing,  it  may  pass  twenty  hands  before  it  sticks  ;  light 
of  heart,  strong  affections,  but  soon  spent.  The  justice  they  have  is 
pecuniary.  In  case  they  kill  a  woman,  they  pay  double,  and  the 


The  Treaty  Ground  at  Kensington,  before  tne  Fall  of  the  "  Treaty  Tree 


494 


COLONIZATION  BY  FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


The  scene  at 


reason  they  render  is,  that  she  breedeth  children,  which  men  cannot 
do.  It  is  rare  that  they  fall  out,  if  sober  ;  and  if  drunk,  they  forgive 
it,  saying,  it  was  the  drink  and  not  the  man  that  abused  them." 

On  this  occasion,  Penn  had  an  interpreter.  The  chief  sachem, 
Taminent,  sat  in  the  middle  of  a  semi-circle,  composed  of  old  men 
and  councillors.  At  a  little  distance  behind,  "the  young  fry,"  in 
the  same  order.  The  sachem  deputed  one  to  address  Penn,  during 
whose  harangue  no  one  whispered  or  smiled.  Penn's  com- 

,  °  ,  .  .r          .   , 

pany  advanced  to  this  meeting  without  arms  ;  he  was  only 
distinguished  by  a  blue  silk  net-work  sash.     The  sachem 
wore  a  kind  of  chaplet,  with  a  small  horn  projecting  from  it  as  a 
symbol  of   sovereignty.     When  he  put  it  on  all    the  natives  threw 
down  their  arms  ;  it  was  a  signal  that  the  place  was  inviolate. 

The  confirmation  of  the  treaty 
was  engrossed  upon  a  roll  of  parch 
ment.  Penn's  address,  with  its  em 
phasis  of  the  Great  Spirit,  must  have 
sparkled  with  a  peculiar  sincerity, 
because  of  his  personal  belief  in  a 
direct  intercourse  with  the  source 
of  all  power.  He  told  the  Indians 
that  every  thought  of  the  heart  was 
known  above  ;  that  the  desire  of 
his  own  heart  was  to  live  in  per 
petual  amity  with  them  ;  that  he 
and  his  friends  came  unarmed  be 
cause  they  never  used  weapons. 
Then  the  conditions  of  the  purchase 
were  read,  and  in  addition  to  the 

stipulated  price  he  presented  them  with  various  articles  of  merchandise. 
The  treaty  concluded  upon  this  pacific  basis,  without  the  exhibition  of 
a  single  weapon  of  modern  warfare,  and  expressly  disclaiming  a  resort 
to  force,  was  faithfully  kept  by  those  barbarians  for  sixty  years. 

While  Penn  was  allotting  land  to  purchasers,  he  reserved  a  tract 
of  a  thousand  acres  for  his  friend  George  Fox.  Land  was  frequently 
purchased  of  the  Indians  by  paying  for  as  much  as  the  purchaser 
could  comprise  in  a  walk.  When  some  of  the  best  English  pedestri 
ans  were  detailed  for  this  new  style  of  measurement,  they  covered  so 
much  ground  that  the  Indians  were  mortified  at  the  unequal  bargain. 
Then  an  additional  present  of  merchandise  set  the  matter  right. 
Thus  the  peace  was  always  kept  in  politic  fashion,  and  the  Indian 
could  entertain  no  cause  for  feud.  Only  one  alarm  ever  occurred  pur 
porting  to  come  from  an  Indian  quarter,  when  one  day  in  1688,  some 


The  Treaty   Monument,    Kensington 


1683.]  PROGRESS    OF   THE   COLONY.  495 

women  came  running  in  with  the  tidings  that  a  large  body  of  Indians 
were  coming  down  to  massacre.  This  was  dire  news  to  the  defence 
less  Friends.  But  instead  of  sending  out  scouts  to  reconnoitre,  who 
were  willing  to  bear  arms,  a  commissioner  was  despatched,  who,  upon 
arriving  at  the  place  indicated,  found  an  old  Indian  chief  lying  all 
alone  upon  the  grass  nursing  his  lame  leg,  and  a  number  of  squaws  at 
work  in  the  field.  No  other  man  was  in  sight.  The  old  chief  said 
the  women  ought  to  be  hanged  for  spreading  so  false  a  report. 

Peun  used  every  lawful  art  of  intercourse  to  conciliate  the  Indians. 
"  He  walked  with  them,"  at  one  of  their  earliest  meetings,  sat  with 
them  on  the  ground,  and  ate  with  them  of  their  roasted  acorns  and 
hominy.  At  this  they  expressed  their  great  delight,  and  soon  began 
to  show  how  they  could  hop  and  jump,  at  which  exhibition  William 
Penn,  to  cap  the  climax,  "  sprang  up  and  beat  them  all."  We  cannot 
imagine  the  fathers  of  New  England  jumping  in  rivalry  with  savages. 
Their  methods  seldom  raised  a  smile. 

In    October,    1683,  one    Enoch   Flower  —  what  pleasant    Quaker 
symbolism  in  the  name  —  began  to  teach  boys  and  girls  in 
a  dwelling  made  of  pine  and  cedar  planks.     His  terms  were,  and  reiig- 
"  To  learn  to  read,  four  shillings  a  quarter;  to  write,  six  shil-  tersinPhu- 
lings  ;  boarding  scholars,  to  wit :  diet,  lodging,  washing,  and 
schooling,  ten  pounds  the  whole  year."     A  printing-press  was  set  up 
soon  after.     From  the  time  of  the  first  settlement  of  New  Netherland 
it  was  seventy  years  before  any  book  or  paper  was  printed  there. 

In  1683,  among  the  emigrants  who  came  over  was  James  Claypoole, 
author  of  several  books  and  pamphlets,  an  admired  friend  of  Penn. 
He  was  an  uncle  of  the  Lord  John  Claypoole  who  married  Cromwell's 
favorite  daughter,  Elizabeth.  He  was  one  of  the  Friends  to  whom 
Penn  addressed  a  touching  religious  exhortation,  just  before  his  re 
turn  to  England  in  1684,  to  be  read  at  all  Friends'  Meetings  in  the 
province.  The  first  Yearly  Meeting  in  Philadelphia  was  held  in 
July,  1683. 

One  reason  for  Penn's  return  to  England  was  the  necessity  for  de 
termining  the  boundary  line  between  his  own  province  and 
that  of  Maryland.    Lord  Baltimore  had  already  gone  on  this  ntem  to 
business,  reasserting   the   right,  under   his   patent,  to   the  Englal 
country  along  the  west  side  of  the  Delaware,  from  Philadelphia  to 
Cape  Henlopen,  which  he  had  so  persistently  maintained  against  the 
Dutch  in   Stuyvesant's  time.     On  this  vexed  question,  after  many 
delays,  Penn  succeeded  in  getting   a   decision   from  the  Committee 
of  Trade   and  Plantations  against  Lord  Baltimore.     Baltimore,  the 
Dutch  had  contended,  had  no  title  to  this  country,  because  it  was 
settled  by  their  people  at  the  time  his  patent  was  issued,  and  that 


496 


COLONIZATION   BY   FRIENDS. 


[('HAP.  XX. 


patent  only  entitled  him  to  lands  uncultivated  and  inhabited  by  sav 
ages.  The  King  had  conquered  the  country  from  the  Dutch  and 
granted  it  to  the  Duke  of  York,  and  the  Duke  had  conveyed  it  to 
William  Penn.  The  title,  therefore,  was  now  vested  in  Penn,  as 
against  Baltimore,  by  Order  of  Council.1 

But  he  was  moved  to  go  to  England  by  another  motive.  He  had 
heard  of  the  accusations  which  were  rife  against  him,  that  he  was 
working  with  Jesuits  to  secure  the  supremacy  of  James  II.,  who 
would  have  been  glad  to  reintroduce  the  Roman  Catholic  religion 
into  England.  The  only  ground  for  the  absurd  report  seems  to  have 
been  the  favor  in  which  he  had  been  held  by  Charles  II.,  and  still 
enjoyed  from  James  II.  To  his  care  the  elder  Penn  —  whom  James 
had  so  much  reason  for  holding  in  affectionate  remembrance  —  had 
warmly  commended  his  son.  Surely  that  son  is  not  to  be  blamed 

that  he  retained  the 
King's  esteem  by  his 
admirable  bearing, 
his  conciliatory  tem 
per,  and  his  un 
flinching  integrity. 
The  influence  he  ac 
quired  he  used  for 
the  benefit  of  all  who 
were  in  need,  espe 
cially  for  hundreds 
of  his  own  sect  who 
still  suffered  in  pris 
ons  all  over  England. 
If  he  sought  to  re 
tain  that  influence 
for  his  own  purposes, 
it  was  only  on  behalf  of  that  commonwealth  he  had  founded,  which 
he  so  loved,  and  for  which  he  spent  his  own  life  and  estate.  If  his 
principles  of  toleration  found  favor  with  James,  it  was  not  because 
of  any  leaning,  on-  Penn's  part,  to  the  Catholic  Church.  It  is  impos 
sible  not  to  believe  that  his  numerous  avowals  against  idolatries  and 
ordinances  were  sincere ;  impossible  not  to  accept  as  true  his  many 
disclaimers  of  any  sympathy  with  the  Church  of  Rome.  The  "  No 
Cross,  no  Crown,"  is  thoroughly  anti-papal.2 

1  The  line  fixed  by  this  decision  was  the  present  boundary  between  Maryland  and  Del 
aware.      The    final    line    between    Maryland  and  Pennsylvania  continued  a  question  of 
dispute  till  settled  by  the  running  of  "  Mason  and  Dixon's  Line,"  by  Charles  Mason  and 
Jeremiah  Dixon,  in  1762. 

2  Were  we  professing  to  give  a  complete  biography  of  William  Penn,  it  would  be  nec- 


The  Penn  Mansion,  later  Residence  of  the  Penn  Family  in  Philadelphia. 


1694.]  TROUBLES  IN  ENGLAND  AND   AMERICA.  497 

But  his  enemies,  and  the  haters  of  Quakerism,  could  not  tolerate 
the  favor  which  his  diplomatic  disposition,  combined  with  his  remark 
able  independence,  won  for  him  at  court.  They  were  less  Pennin 
the  foes  of  Jesuits.  Penn  thought  it  right  to  use  all  the  in-  ^s^- 
fluence  he  could  command  for  the  benefit  of  his  American  province, 
and  to  have  the  new  persecutions  against  the  Quakers  abated.  He 
succeeded  in  both  purposes.  Before  leaving  America  he  appointed 
a  Provincial  Council  to  act  for  him  during  his  absence ;  but  it  was 
riot  long  before  disputes  arose  which  caused  him  much  anxiety.  He 
could  not  succeed  in  prevailing  upon  the  Assembly  to  restrain  the  use 
of  spirituous  liquors,  and  to  withhold  them  altogether  from  the  Indi 
ans.  His  officers  committed  many  extortions  in  the  sale  of  his  lands. 
He  experienced  great  difficulty  in  collecting  his  quit-rents,  and  was 
seriously  embarrassed  by  the  great  outlay  which  he  had  made :  "  Six 
thousand  pounds  out  of  pocket,"  he  said  repeatedly. 

At  the  revolution  of  1688,  he  fell  under  serious  suspicion  of  aiding 
in  the  plots  for  the  return  of  James  II.  Once  he  was  arrested  and 
brought  before  the  Lords  of  Council,  and,  at  his  own  request,  was 
taken  before  the  King.  A  letter  had  been  written  him  by  James, 
and  when  examined  in  regard  to  it,  he  could  not,  he  said,  prevent 
him  from  writing  to  him  ;  but  if  that  brought  him  under  a  suspicion 
of  plotting  for  a  restoration,  it  did  not  compel  him  to  violate  his  duty 
to  the  state.  The  King  seemed  satisfied  with  his  defence,  and  he  was 
not  again  molested.  It  did  not  seem  to  him  proper,  however,  to 
leave  the  kingdom  while  under  such  suspicion,  and  he  remained  in 
England. 

During  this  time  he  was  pained  by  the  accounts  sent  to  him  of  the 
dissensions  in  his  province.  The  three  lower  counties  on  the  Penn  re_ 
Delaware,  called  the  "  Territories,"  had  insisted  on  a  sepa-  g-^Jri™ 
rate  government,  and  to  this  he  reluctantly  assented.  Other  torshiP- 
difficulties  occurred,  relating  to  the  religious  doctrines  of  Friends. 
These  were  chiefly  fomented  by  George  Keith,  who  had  been  ap 
pointed  the  principal  of  the  Friends'  public  school  in  Philadelphia, 
which  was  established  in  1689.  The  court  took  advantage  of  these 
disturbances  to  depose  Penn  from  the  government  of  the  province,  and 
another  governor  was  sent  out,  who  administered  affairs  till  Penn  was 
reinstated  in  1694,  having  shown  the  hollqwness  of  the  charges 
against  himself  and  reestablished  old  feelings  of  amity  with  the  sus- 

essary  to  meet  the  various  charges  brought  against  him  by  Macaulay,  in  his  History  of 
England.  A  complete  refutation  of  them  may  be  found  in  a  Preface  to  Clarkson's  Life 
of  Penn,  by  William  E.  Forster,  the  English  statesman  ;  in  The  Life  of  William  Penn,  by 
Samuel  E.  Janney ;  in  a  Defence  of  William  Penn,  by  Henry  Fairbairn  ;  and  in  Dixon's 
Life  of  Penn,  which  on  this  point,  at  least,  may  be  considered  as  an  authority.  The  evi 
dence  is  ample,  and  would  be  accepted  in  any  court  of  justice. 
VOL.  ii.  32 


498 


COLONIZATION    BY   FRIENDS. 


[CHAP.  XX. 


picious  party  in  the  Society.  The  new  Governor,  Fletcher,  who  was 
also  Governor  of  New  York,  had,  in  the  meantime,  with  the  usual 
fatal  facility  of  royal  governors,  quarrelled  with  the  Assembly  and 
retired  in  disgust  to  New  York. 

Penn  made  his  defence  and  explanation  before  the  Council  in  1693 ; 
His  restore-  n^s  reinstatement  in  the  proprietary  government  took  place 
tion.  jn  August,  1694.  While  he  was  preparing  to  return  he 

appointed  his  cousin,  Colonel  Markham,  Deputy  Governor  of  the 
province,  his  friend  Thomas  Lloyd,  who  had  been  his  Deputy  for  some 
time,  having  recently  died.  Markham's  administration  was,  on  the 
whole,  satisfactory,  and  there  was  little  for  several  years  to  disturb 
the  tranquillity  and  prosperity  of  the  colony,  which  already  contained 
20,000  people.  Penn  permitted  his  private  affairs  to  retain  him  in 
England  till  1699,  when  he  once  more  sailed  for  America  with  his 
family,  with  the  firm  intention  of  remaining  there  for  the  rest  of  his 
days. 


Miuiiiitumui  t  i  iiiiiiiiimiuuiiiiimwumumuuiuuiaLuuuu  i  muufiiaiiiiumiiu  in 
[iiiciiiiciuuK  c  t  [uuiiuiiumuuiiiHiiuiiUiHUiiumiuiuiUKiii  c  uumuiucuitcicutci  mi 
[[ttucHituiu  t  Htimiiiimimuiiiiitiuuuii  uuuiiiuiiiiuuuui  t  iiiuiiiwiurittwuii  inn 
uiiwuticcu  i  i  iiHiiumuiuiii  iiiiuuiii  uuuiunmiiimii  t  [luiiuuuumuaua  mm 

[[fl.tltfUUll  I      t  llinilllllUlUUHI  IIIIIUIUIII    limillllUimUUIS  I     IIKUHIUllUUUtl 

ciuuuunt  i     i  iictuttemtittim      MUCH         r  utuuuumu  i    fiuti 
circuital  t     i  ittttntteuiiiicac  i     i  irtm  ti      n  Minimum  i    nun 

uriUltlU  I       (  III-  l>l  i.  Kirrcrt  t      II  (til  [II        1C  lltllLIUlllll  I      IIIIIKUKUIIIUIHUIII  IIIUIIIII 

niiinieii     i  tmiiumtuuuicci  c    in  «  till     iiuimuiuin    IIIIMN 

CCCttlUl  C      I  IMIIIINHIIIIHINCtl  I     (UllllII       It  IlllllUIUU     natllll 

iteioiii  o     t  uiHHinmwiNimN  i    HIHHNU     CCIUIIIIIK.II    NNMHNMUMNIMM»,I 

mien  t     t  iiitiaiKHiiuittiliitui  i  iiiiuiiiii  i  cuuiuuiif  i   i  luiimmiiimuiu  i 

MUM  I      I  HMNmiHUWlllHIIICI  t  tHIMCltCi   C    lllUIUUII  1     MllUllllHIIIIKllllli  I 
Hill  (      I  HIiniMMWNNNlMMM  I  Itlllllllll  i   [[UIIIIUl  I    I  KlIIHlUHUIUUtll  I     I 

tin  (     i  aicauuuiiiiuiuiiidcti  c  [iimitt    i    cctcuui  i    i  in"" 

Ml  I      I  III 


I  [     I  l(lt(([[t[einMNIMNiMlliMiHii[!l(U(i(i[[i[[[ill{' 


Wampum  received  by   Penn  in   Commemoration  of  the   Indian  Treaty. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


THE  FRENCH   IN   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY. 

THE  EXPLORATION  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI  AND  THE  SETTLEMENT  OF  LOUISIANA.  — 
FRENCH  MISSIONARIES  AND  HUNTERS.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  OHIO,  INDIANA,  AND  OTHER 
NORTHWESTERN  STATES.  —  THE  POLICY  OF  COLBERT  AND  TALON.  —  DISCOVERY  OF 
THE  UPPER  LAKES.  —  CONGRESS  OF  NATIVE  TRIBES  AT  MACKINAC.  —  MARQUETTE 

AND  JOLIET  SAIL  FOR  THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MISSISSIPPI. FRENCH  COLONY  OF 

1699. D'lBERVILLE  AND  HIS  BROTHERS. BlLOXI  AND   POVERTY  POINT. WAR 

OF  SUCCESSION.  —  PENSACOLA.  —  MINES.  —  CROZAT'S  GRANT. 

THE  English  and  Dutch  settlers,  to  whose  history  this  volume  has 
thus  far  been  for  the  most  part  devoted,  never  showed  any  disposition 
to  make  permanent  homes  with  the  aborigines.  Their  efforts  to 
Christianize  them  were  made  loyally,  but  did  not  include  life  in  their 
wigwams  or  villages.  Even  the  hunter  or  trapper  of  English  blood, 
who  brought  furs  from  the  frontier  to  the  sea,  was  not  a  man  who  had 
carried  on  his  hunting  or  trapping  in  league  with  the  natives.  He 
had  lived  in  a  solitary  hut,  or  he  had  made  his  excursions  from  a  fron 
tier  village. 

From  the  very  beginning,  however,  a 
different  disposition  showed  it-   Tendency  of 
self  in  the  French  colonies  of  toward"*? 
Acadie  and  of  Canada.    When  j^d'ven- 
the  white  population  of  Canada   ture- 
was  not  more  than  three  hundred  per 
sons,  a  considerable  number  of  those  per 
sons  were  living  in  the  villages  of  the 
Hurons,1  whose  homes  were  then  further 
to  the  east  than  that  great  lake  which 

Totem  of  the    Hurons   (from    La   Hontan).  ,1      •  n  r     i 

now  preserves  tneir  name.    Some  of  these 
Frenchmen  were  traders  for  furs,  some  were  priests,  at  first  of  the 

1  The  handful  of  Wyandots,  now  in  Kansas,  represents  the  great  tribe  of  Hurons.  The 
spelling  Yendat  is  the  earlier  form.  See  Gallatin's  Synopsis.  The  word  "  Huron  "  is 
itself  not  Indian  but  French,  derived  from  the  French  word  hure,  meaning  a  rough  mane 
or  head  of  hair. 


500          THE  FRENCH  IN   THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.    [CHAI-.  XXI. 

Recollet  order,  afterwards  of  the  fraternity  of  Jesuits.  It  was  by  such 
traders  and  missionaries  that  several  of  the  western  States  of  the 
American  Union  were  first  opened  to  the  knowledge  of  Europe. 

The  great  Champlaiu,  from  whom  the  real  history  of  Canada  be 
gins,  arrived  in  Quebec  on  the  3d  of  July,  1608,  only  a  year  after  the 
French  Pio-  settlement  at  Jamestown.1  In  1615  he  discovered  Lake  On 
tario,  and  Lake  Nipissing.  He  pressed  his  explorations 
westward,  and  recent  research  has  shown  that  as  early  as  1634,  Jean 
Nicollet,  a  Frenchman  who  had  become  an  Indian  in  all  his  habits, 
visited,  in  the  course  of  his  western  travels,  the  region  which  we  now 
know  as  Wisconsin.  These  were  pioneer  adventures.  Nicollet  was 
himself  a  sincere  Catholic.  He  and  other  pioneers  were  followed,  as 
early  as  the  year  1640,  by  the  Fathers  Chaumonot  and  Bre"bceuf,  who 


•  —  ---    . 


Island  of    Mackir.ac. 


coasted  along  the  northern 
shore  of  the  State  of  Ohio, 
and  the  eastern  shore  of 
Michigan  as  far  as  the 
Straits  of  Mackinac.  In 
1659,  two  young  traders, 
who  pushed  their  explora 
tions  farther  west,  joined  a  tribe  of  Indians,  with  whom  they  went  so 
far  west  upon  Lake  Superior,  that  they  heard  for  the  first  time  of  the 
great  tribe  of  the  Sioux,  whose  conflicts  against  the  whites  occupy  the 
journals  even  as  late  as  our  day.  At  that  time,  the  SiQiix  appeared  to 
these  travellers  a  powerful  nation,  of  more  gentle  manners  than  the 
eastern  Indians,  whom  they  had  known  before.  The  Frenchmen  re 
ported  that  they  were  not  cruel  to  their  prisoners,  and  that  they  wor- 

1  See  vol.  i.,  p.  321. 


1660.] 


FRENCH  MISSIONARIES. 


501 


shipped  one  God.1  These  pioneers  returned  to  Montreal  in  the  spring 
of  1660,  with  sixteen  canoes  packed  with  furs.  In  these  movements, 
dictated  now  by  adventure,  now  by  religious  zeal,  and  often  by  both 
combined,  our  States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Michigan,  Illinois,  Wisconsin, 
and  Minnesota,  were  first  visited  by  the  whites.  Perhaps  it  would 
be  too  much  to  say,  in  all  cases,  that  those  who  made  these  explo 
rations  were  what  we  should  call  civilized  men. 

In  the  summer  of  1660  Father  Mesnard  took  with  him  some  In 
dians  of  the  Algonkin  race,  and  founded  a  new  mission.     He 

0  -IT  Mesnard 's 

established  himself  at  first  at  a  point  on  the  southern  shore  Aigonkm 

mission. 

of  Lake  Superior  which  is  still 
known  as  Chagwamegan,2  the  name  it  then 
bore.  Mesnard,  however,  on  the  invitation 
of  the  Hurons,  returned  to  the  western  bay 
of  Lake  Huron,  where  he  lost  his  life  in 
some  unknown  way.  In  1665,  Father  Al 
louez  established  a  mission  at  the  same  point, 
and  was  able  to  preach  in  the  Algonkin  lan 
guage  to  twelve  or  fifteen  different  tribes. 
The  same  language  is  still  used  by  the  Chip- 
peways  of  that  region. 

The  Jesuit  writers  say  that  the  fame  of 
Father  Allouez  extended  even  to  the  Sioux,  and  that  they  other  mis- 
told  him    of  the  prairies  on  the  banks  of   the  Mississippi.  sions- 
Father  Dablon,  another  missionary,  learned  of  the  Mississippi  from  a 
map  which  the  Sioux  drew  for  him,  and  as  early 
as  1669  proposed  to  himself  an  expedition  to 
discover  it.     With  Father  Allouez  he  went  as 
far  as  the  Fox  River,  and  learned  that  the  Wis 
consin  River,  of  the  present  State  of  Wisconsin, 
was  one  of  the  affluents  of  the  Mississippi. 

Meanwhile  the  genius  of  Colbert  in  France 
had  apprehended  the  value  of  the  French  es 
tablishment  in  Canada.  He  was  beginning  to 
undo  the  unfortunate  results  of  the  narrower 
policy  of  Cardinal  Richelieu.  In  pursuance  of 
this  policy,  Jean  Talon,  who  had  gained  the  Totem  of  the  Foxes  <from  La 
favor  of  the  king  in  France,  was  entrusted 
with  the  oversight  of  commerce  in  Canada.  He  arranged  a  great  coun- 


Totem  of  the  Sioux  (from  La  Hontan). 


1  The  Sioux  call  themselves  Dahcotahs. 

2  Chagwamegan  means  "  on  the  long,  narrow  point  of  land,  or  sand-bar."    For  this,  and 
many  similar  interpretations,  we  are  indebted  to  Dr.  J.  Hammond  Trumbull,  the  learned 
master  of  the  Indian  tongues. 


502 


THE  FRENCH   IN   THE   MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.     [CHAP.  XXI. 


Talon's  In 
dian  Coun 
cil. 


cil  of  Indians  at  the  Sault  Ste.  Marie,  at  the  foot  of  Lake  Superior,  in 
1671.  Nicolas  Perrot,  who  knew  their  languages  and  customs, 
convened  the  assembly.  It  is  in  the  report  of  this  council  that 
the  name  "  Chicago  "  first  appears  in  literature.  M.  de  St. 
Lousson  represented  Louis  XIV.  He  found  here  the  chiefs  of  tribes 
as  distant  as  Hudson's  Bay  on  the  east,  and  the  head  of  Lake  Supe 
rior  and  Lake  Michigan  on  the  west 
and  south.  In  the  joint  hyperbole  of 
French  genius  and  the  Indian  dialect 
he  described  the  glories  of  Le  grand 
Monarque.  The  chiefs  declared  that 
they  asked  for  no  other  father  than 
the  great  Onnonthio  l  of  the  French. 
A  cross  was  erected,  to  which  the  Arms  of  France  was  fastened,  and 
possession  was  assumed  in  the  name  of  the  French  crown. 


Signature  of  Joliet. 


View  on  the  Fox   River. 

Louis  Joliet  had  been  sent  from 
France  to  Count  Frontenac,  the  |j 
governor  of  Canada,  as  a  proper 
person  to  attempt  the  discovery, 
overland,  of  the  Pacific  Ocean. 
Talon  had  already  suggested  in 

France,  the  appointment  of  Poulet,  a  captain  of  Dieppe,  for  an  ex 
ploration  of  the  Pacific  by  way  of  the  Straits  of  Magellan.     Father 

1  The  name  lingers  among  the  Indians  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  In  the  deposition  of  Charles 
Soskonharowane,  of  Caughuawaga,  taken  to  determine  whether  Rev.  Eleazer  Williams 
should  or  should  not  be  known  as  King  Louis  XVII.,  son  of  Louis  XVI.,  this  Indian 
says,  "  Many  incidents  of  his  youth  would  remove  the  thought  of  his  being  the  son  of  the 
great  Anonthica."  Sworn  to  April  16,  1853. 


MARQUETTE'S  VOYAGE. 


503 


Marquette,  who  had  already  gone  as  far  as  Wisconsin  as  a  missionary, 
joined  Joliet,  and,  in  1673,  they  started  on  the  expedition  in  Marquette!s 
which,  so  far  as  we  know,  the  source  and  course  of  the  Mis-  T0*ase- 
sissippi  were  discovered  by  Europeans.  Of  the  discovery  of  its  mouth 
by  the  adventurous  Spaniards,  and  part  of  the  region  above,  the  his 
tory  is  already  told  in  an  earlier  chapter.1 

In  this  eventful  voyage,  the  first  in  which  civilized  men  navigated 
a  large  part  of  the  course  of  a  river,  which  has  since  become  the  high 
way  of  half  a  nation,  Marquette  and 
Joliet  descended  the  Mississippi  as  far 
as  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  River. 
They  satisfied  themselves  that  they 
were  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico,  and  wishing  to  avoid  any 
collision  with  the  Spaniards  returned 
to  Canada.  We  have  a  charming  ac 
count  of  the  enterprise  by  Marquette 
himself,  which  was  published  in  Paris 
in  1681.  The  voyagers  passed  up 
Green  Bay,  and  the  Fox  River.  Near 
the  head  of  the  Bay  was  the  most  ad 
vanced  French  station,  and  here  they 
bade  their  compatriots  good-by.  The 
Indian  village  there  was  made  up  of 
Miamis,  Mascoutins,  and  Kickapoos, 
of  whom  the  priests  rated  the  Miamis 
most  highly  for  civility.  The  travel 
lers  saw,  with  pleasure,  a  cross,  which  had  been  erected  in  the  vil 
lage,  and  was  adorned  by  the  devotion  of  the  natives. 
They  addressed  the  assembly  of  them,  explained  their  on  FOX 
object,  and  enlisted  two  Miami  guides,  who  should  show 
them  the  difficult  passage  by  which  to  cross  from  the  Fox  to  the  Wis 
consin  River;  from  the  waters  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  those  flowing 
into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  channel  of  the  river  was  so  choked 
with  wild  rice,  that  the  Frenchmen  could  not  have  found  its  course 
without  such  help.  A  passage  of  little  more  than  a  mile  brought  the 
explorers  to  the  waters  of  the  Wisconsin.  The  two  guides  there  left 
the  party  of  seven  Frenchmen  alone  on  these  strange  waters,  five  or 
six  hundred  leagues  from  Quebec,  according  to  Marquette's  calcula 
tion,  to  take  the  stream  which  would  bear  them  into  lands  wholly 
new.  Marquette's  own  map  preserves,  with  curious  accuracy,  their 
route  in  Wisconsin,  through  the  county  of  Portage,  which  takes  its 

1  See  chapter  vii.,  vol.  i. 


The  Wild   Rice. 


504 


THE  FRENCH  IN   THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXL 


name  from  the  easy  transfer  here  made  between  the  two  great  systems 
of  American  waters. 

They  seem  to  have  crossed  the  portage  on  the  10th  of  June.  A 
week  was  sufficient  for  the  voyage  of  forty  leagues,  according  to  their 
estimate,  which  brought  them  to  the  Mississippi,  which  they  entered 


cle  MicJtigami  ou  Jtlinoi 


4.0 


42. 

Marquette's   Map.1 


with  inexpressible  joy.  They  estimated  the  latitude  of  the  point 
where  the  Wisconsin  joins  it  at  42£  degrees,  —  about  half  a  degree 
farther  south  than  it  is  placed  by  the  more  modern  observations. 

1  The  map  here  given  is  a  part  of  that  published  iu  Paris  by  Thevenot  as  "  Marquette's 
Map."  It  differs  from  the  original  manuscript,  which  is  still  preserved,  in  the  spelling  of 
a  few  of  the  words,  —  probably  only  through  an  error  of  the  engraver. 


1673.] 


RECEPTION   BY   THE  ILLINOIS. 


505 


For  eight  days  the  navigators  floated  down  the  river,  without  seeing 
men  or  signs  of  men.     The  herds  of  buffalo,  which  they  called  by  the 
Indian  word  Pisikiou,  were  new  to  them,  and  are  carefully  described. 
For  fear  of  surprise,  the  explorers  made  but  little  fire,  spent  the  night 
in  their  canoes,  anchored  a  little  distance  from  the  shore,  and  always 
kept  a  sentinel  on  the  alert.     At  last,  on  the  25th  of  June,  a  well 
worn  path  on  the  shore  indicated  the  presence  of  men,  and 
Marquette  and  Joliet,  warning  their  crews  not  to  be  sur-  with  the  in- 
prised  in  their  absence,  followed  up  the  trodden  trail  to  com 
municate  with  the  natives.     These  proved  to  be  Illinois  ;  and  they  re- 


Marquette's    Reception    by  the    Illinois. 

ceived  the  Frenchmen  cordially.  The  chief  of  the  village  came  forth 
naked  from  his  wigwam  to  welcome  them,  with  his  hands  raised  to 
the  sun  ;  others  flourished  the  pipe  of  peace.  To  these  pipes  they 
gave  the  name  "  calumet,"  l  now  so  familiar  to  us,  which  was,  how 
ever,  new  to  the  voyagers.  While  the  formalities  of  smoking  were 

1  Marquette  notes  the  fact  that  the  calumet  was  made  of  red  stone.  The  Indians  of  the 
Northwest  still  use  the  Pipe  Rock  for  their  calumets,  which  has  acquired  a  sacred  value. 
It  is  found  in  the  ridge  between  the  Missouri  and  the  Mississippi.  It  appears  to  be  the  only 
locality  now  known  in  the  world,  for  that  almost  precious  stone  which  antiquaries  know  aa 
Rosso  Antico. 


606 


THE   FRENCH   IN   THE   MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.     [CnAi>.  XXJ. 


going  on,  an  invitation  arrived  from  the  great  chief  of  the  Illinois 
that  the  strangers  should  visit  him  at  his  village,  —  and  they  did  so. 
They  found  him  standing  between  two  old  men  in  front  of  the  cabin, 
which  served  him  for  a  palace,  —  all  three  naked.  The  chief  held  a 
calumet  turned  towards  the  sun.  After  felicitating  the  strangers  on 
their  arrival,  he  invited  them  into  his  cabin,  and  received  them,  as 
Marquette  says,  "  with  the  usual  caresses."  After  a  feast,  and  a  sort 
of  triumphal  procession  in  which  the  strangers  saw  the  town,  which 
consisted  of  three  hundred  cabins,  more  than  six  hundred  persons  ac 
companied  them  to  their  canoes,  assuring  them  of  the  pleasure  which 
their  visit  had  given.  They  gave  to  Marquette  a  calumet,  which 
proved  valuable  to  him  afterwards. 

Leaving  their  hospitable  friends  they  continued  their  voyage.  They 
The  Painted  recognized  the  rocks  known  long  afterward  as  the  Painted 
Rocks,  on  which  the  designs  were  so  striking  that  Marquette 
thought  the  best  painters  in  France  would  scarcely  have  done  so  well. 
Traces  of  these  paintings  have  been  made  out  within 
the  present  century.1  They  struck  the  Missouri,  — 
to  which  they  gave  the  name  of  Pekitanoui.2  Their 
description  of  its  mighty  flow,  of  its  muddy  water, 
and  the  distinctness  of  its  current  from  that  of  the 
Mississippi,  notes  the  points  which  every  traveller 
first  observes,  to  this  day.  Marquette  says  in  his 
journal  that  he  hoped  by  means  of  it  to  make  the 
discovery  of  the  Red  Sea  or  Gulf  of  California,  both 
these  names  being  given  in  his  time  to  the  same  gulf, 
which  we  know  only  by  the  latter  title  of  the  two. 

In  this  hope  he  was  encouraged  by  his  Indian 
The  Mis-  friends,  who  told  him  that  by  going  up  the 
souri  River.  M iSSOuri,  for  five  or  six  days,  he  would  come 
to  a  beautiful  prairie  twenty  or  thirty  leagues  long ; 
that  he  could  carry  his  canoes  easily  across  this 
prairie  to  the  northwest,  where  he  would  find  a  little  river.  By  this 
river  he  could  descend  ten  or  fifteen  leagues  till  he  came  to  a  little 
lake,  the  source  of  another  deep  river  "  which  flows  to  the  west  and 
discharges  into  the  sea."  All  this  imaginary  geography  may  have  had 
little  foundation,  but  it  excited  Marquette's  hopes  of  visiting  the 
Pacific.  From  the  course  of  the  Missouri,  and  these  narratives  of  the 
** 

1  See  Dr.  Shea's  paper,  Wisconsin  Hist.  Trans.,  vol.  viii.,  p.  116.     The  painting  last  pre 
served  could  be  made  out,  even  from  the  other  side  of  the  river.     It  was  called  the  Piasa 
Bird.     We  have  found  no  representation  of  it  sufficiently  accurate  to  copy.     It  was  de 
stroyed  in  quarrying,  within  the  memory  of  the  present  generation. 

2  For  Pekitanoni  is  the  misprint  of  the  French  printer. 


Totem  of  the   Illinois. 
(From  La  Hontan.) 


1673.] 


THE  OHIO   RIVER. 


507 


Indians,  he  was  already  satisfied  that  he  should  find  that  the  Missis 
sippi  discharged  itself  into  the  Gulf  of  Mexico. 

He  and  his  companions  fixed  the  latitude  of  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio 
at  36°  north,  —  supposing  themselves  two  degrees  farther  south  than 
they  were.  They  give  the  name  of  Ouabouskigou  to  this  river.  The 
name  Wabash,  which  is  the  modern  form  of  this  word,  is  now 
confined  to  the  stream  which  makes  part  of  the  western  bor 
der  of  the  State  of  Indiana.1  The  travellers  here  speak  of  the  Shaw- 
nee  Indians,  resident  on  the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  as  a  peaceful  race, 


The  Ohio. 


Mouth  of  the  Ohio. 


who  suffered  shamefully 
from  the  inroads  of  the 
cruel  Iroquois.  It  is  to 
be  observed  that  French 
hunters  seem  to  have 
come  down  the  Ohio, 
almost  to  the  point  of 
its  union  with  the  Mississippi,  before  Marquette's  voyage,  for  he  al 
ludes  to  their  account  of  iron  mines  upon  the  river.  In  a  memorial 
of  the  date  of  1677,  La  Salle,  of  whom  we  are  soon  to  speak,  claims 


1  Ouabachioui,  or  Wabashiwi,  in  the  Illinois  dialect,  means  "  silver."  Some  romantic 
red  man  may  have  called  the  stream  a  "  silver  stream,."  as  so  many  other  poets,  of  other 
races,  have  called  other  rivers.  But  Father  Du  Marest  mentions  the  report,  which  would 
grow  naturally  from  the  name,  that  silver  mines  had  been  found  near  it.  This  report  has 
not  been  confirmed,  nor  is  it  likely  to  be.  In  the  Chippeway,  "  Wabashkiki  "  means 
"  swampy  "  or  "  marshy."  So  certain  is  it,  that  one  man's  silver  is  another  man's  dirt. 
But  there  seems  no  reason  why  Chippeways  should  have  named  a  river  of  the  Illinois,  or 
Shawnees.  Our  name  Ohio,  is  from  the  Iroquois,  in  allusion  to  the  beauty  of  the  stream. 
It  is  so  said  on  a  MS.  map  of  1673,  in  Mr.  Parkinau's  possessign." 


508  THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.   [CHAP.  XXL 

that  he  discovered  the  Ohio.     Its  upper  waters  are  not  far  from  his 
post  on  Lake  Erie. 

Passing  the  junction  of  the  Ohio,  Marquette  notes  the  canebrakes 
and  the  mosquitoes,  peculiarities  of  the  Mississippi  which  two  centuries 
have  not  changed  since  his  time.  The  discoverers  were  fain  to  surround 
themselves  with  mosquito  nets  as  they  sailed.  As  they  floated  down, 
they  saw  on  shore  savages,  armed  with  guns,  who  invited 
tribes  along  them  to  land,  and  regaled  them  with  buffalo  beef,  bear's 
grease,  and  "  white  plums."  1  Their  hosts  assured  them  that 
they  bought  their  guns,  powder,  knives,  hatchets,  and  cloths  from 
Europeans  on  the  eastern  coasts ;  that  these  men  had  images  and  hats 
and  played  on  instruments,  and  that  a  voyage  of  ten  days  was  enough 
to  bring  the  travellers  to  the  sea.  And  they  seem  to  have  given  to 
Marquette  the  impression  that  they  themselves  had  found  European 
traders  at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  On  this  news  he  eagerly 
resumed  his  voyage. 

At  a  point  not  far  from  the  site  of  the  city  of  Helena  he  found  a 
village  named  Mitchigamea.  The  name  seems  to  show  that  its  people 
had  strayed  thus  far  from  the  north.2  These  savages  had  no  guns,  but 
they  appeared  hostile  until  they  saw  the  calumet.  By  an  old  man  who 
spoke  the  Illinois  language,  communication  became  possible,  and  these 
people  took  the  strangers  as  far  as  to  the  next  tribe,  of  which  the  chief 
town  was  ten  leagues  further  down.  It  was  named  Akansea,  as  the 
French  travellers  spelled  it,3  and  here  they  met  the  tribe  known  to  us 
till  lately,  as  the  Arkansas  Indians.  They  have  since  recovered  their 
original  name  of  Quapaws.4  Here  the  Frenchmen  were  hospitably 
entertained,  a  good  interpreter  was  found,  and  the  natives  heard  with 
wonder  what  Marquette  told  them  of  the  mysteries  of  faith,  and 
showed  a  great  desire  that  he  might  give  them  further  instructions. 
As  to  his  voyage  to  the  gulf,  however,  they  dissuaded  him.  It  was 
possible  to  make  it  in  five  days.  But  the  tribes  whom  he  would  meet 
were  hostile.  They  cut  off  from  the  Arkansas  all  commerce  with 
Europeans,  and  they  were  so  much  in  the  habit  of  plying  to  and  fro 
on  the  river,  that  the  voyagers  would  be,  according  to  these  Indians, 
in  great  danger. 

1  The  prumts  Americana  of  Michaux.     Its  range  is  as  wide  as  from  the  Saskatchewan  to 
Texas.     Its  colors  vary,  and,  while  Marquette  calls  the  plums  Wanes,  they  are  sometimes 
yellow,  and  sometimes  red. 

2  See  Dr.  Shea,  loc.  cit.,  p.  116. 
8  Or  their  French  printer. 

*  See  Dr.  Shea,  loc.  cit.,  p.  116.  Mr.  Gallatin  suggests  that  they  are  the  Pacachas  of  De 
Soto.  Touty  calls  them  Cappas.  Mr.  Gallatin  says :  "  The  superiority  of  this  race  of 
Indians  struck  the  French,  who  called  the  Arkansas  '  Beaux  Hommes.'  Their  men  are 
said  to  have  exceeded  in  height  the  average  of  the  Europeans." 


1673.]  THE   ILLINOIS   RIVER.  509 

This  friendly  reception  by  the  Arkansas  was   not  to  be  wholly 
relied  upon.     The  same  evening  the  chiefs  held  a  council  to  The  Arkan. 
decide  whether  they  should  not  knock  the  Frenchmen  on  the  sas- 
head  and  take  their  goods.    But  the  great  chief  forbade,  assured  the 
travellers  of  his  protection,  and  even  gave  to  them,  as  a  token,  his  own 
calumet. 

Joliet  and  Marquette,  however,  decided  that  it  was  time  for  them 
to  return.  They  knew  that  they  were  near  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In 
deed  they  mistook  its  real  boundary,  and  expected  to  find  it  at  a  point 
a  hundred  miles  farther  north  than  New  Orleans.  They  supposed 
themselves  to  be  in  the  latitude  of  forty-four  degrees,  and  in  this 
supposition  they  were  nearly  correct,  for  the  site  of  the  village  of 
Dakansea,  or  Akansea,1  was  nearly  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Arkan 
sas  River.  They  reflected  that  if  they  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Spaniards  all  the  results  of  their  expedition  would  be  lost.  They 
therefore  turned  on  their  course  on  the  17th  of  July.  But,  when 
they  reached  the  Illinois  River,  they  took  that  beautiful  stream,  and 
made  one  of  the  portages,  since  so  well  known,  into  Lake  Michi 
gan.  Of  the  Illinois  Valley  Marquette  writes :  "  We  have  Voyage  up 
seen  nothing  equal  to  this  river  for  the  goodness  of  land,  theI1Unois- 
prairies,  wood,  cattle,  deer,  goats,  wild  cats,  bustards,  swans,  ducks, 
parroquets,  and  even  beaver;  there  are  many  little  lakes  and  little 
rivers."  A  chief  of  the  Illinois  guided  their  return  to  Green  Bay, 
and  here  they  arrived  in  the  end  of  September. 

In  this  voyage  our  States  of  Missouri  and  Kentucky  were  discov 
ered,  so  far  as  we  know,  to  Europeans.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Tennessee,  Arkansas,  and  Mississippi,  which  were  now  visited  by 
Marquette,  had  been  traversed  in  some  parts  by  De  Soto  and  his  fol 
lowers.2 

Marquette,  whose  simple  and  devout  narrative  makes  the  reader 
love  the  adventurer,  remained  two  years  among  the  Miamis. 

/-\       i_  •  .-,.  -»«-!•  -,     Subsequent 

On  his  way  in  his  canoe  to  Mackmac  in  1675,  he  stopped  Hfe  of  Mar- 
on  the  eastern  shore  of  Lake  Michigan  to  raise  an  altar  and  Q 
celebrate  the  mass.  He  then  asked  his  companions  to  leave  him  alone 
for  a  little  while.  They  did  so,  and  when  they  returned  they  found 
him  dead.  Joliet,  his  companion  in  adventure,  had  returned  to  Mon 
treal  in  1674.  On  his  way  thither  his  canoe  upset,  he  lost  his  papers 
and  his  journal,  and  some  curiosities  from  the  discovery.  A  little 

1  Marquette  gives  one  name  on  his  map  and  the  other  in  the  text. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  p.  165.     Coxe,  in  the  appendix  to  the  "Carolana,"  a  book  written  to  show 
that  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  belongs  to  the  English  crown,  says  that  the  first  redis 
covery  of  the  great  river  after  De  Soto's  was  made  by  adventurers  from  New  England. 
But  Coxe's  memorial  was  dated  in  1699,  and  we  have  no  earlier  mention  of  Col.  Wood. 


510  THE   FRENCH   IN    THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.   [CHAP.  XXI. 

boy,  of  ten  years  old,  who  had  been  given  to  him,  was  also  lost. 
Joliet  himself  was  four  hours  in  the  water,  and,  as  he  says,  rescued 
only  by  miracle.  He  reported,  on  his  arrival,  to  Count  Frontenac, 
the  governor,  and  he  relates  the  success  of  the  expedition  in  a  de 
spatch  to  Colbert  of  the  14th  of  November,  of  the  year  after  it  was 
completed. 

When  Joliet  returned  with  the  tidings  of  the  success  achieved  by 
this  modest  expedition,  Robert  Cavelier  de  la  Salle,  a  Nor- 

Robert  Cav-  ,  ,....—  .,  __      , 

ciierdeia  man  gentleman,  was  living  in  Canada.  He  had  been  trained 
by  the  Jesuits  in  early  life,  and  was  determined  both  to 
make  a  reputation  and  a  fortune.  He  had  come  to  Canada  eager  to 
seek  a  passage  to  Japan  and  China,  and  at  this  moment  had  a  trading 
house  at  Lachine,  above  Montreal.  It  is  said  that  the  name  "  La- 
chine  "  is  taken  from  that  of  China.  When  the  news  of  Marquette's 
discovery  was  made  known,  La  Salle  waited  upon  Count  Frontenac, 
and  represented  that  the  time  had  come  for  an  expedition  to  the 
Pacific.  So  little  interest  had  been  taken  in  France  in  these  dis 
coveries,  that  as  late  as  April  16,  1676,  Louis  XIV.  writes  to  Fronte 
nac,  in  a  letter  which  still  exists  in  manuscript,  "  With  regard  to  new 
discoveries  you  will  not  address  yourself  to  them  excepting  in  a  great 
necessity."  This  was  not  encouraging.  But  Frontenac  gave  La  Salle 
a  good  introduction  at  court,  and  he  obtained  from  the  Marquis  of 
Seignelay,  who  had  succeeded  Colbert  as  Minister  of  Marine,  all  that 
he  asked  for. 

He  sailed  from  Rochelle  for  Canada,  in  the  summer  of  1678,  with 
thirty  men,  and  with  the  stores  proper  for  equipping  the  vessels  which 
he  meant  to  build  upon  the  lakes.  Arriving  at  the  head  of  Lake 
Ontario,  he  made  the  portage  by  Niagara  Falls  to  Lake  Erie,  and  at 
Fort  Frontenac  began  to  build  a  ship  of  forty-five  tons,  which  he  called 
the  Griffin.  On  the  7th  of  August,  1679,  she  sailed  on  her  western 
voyage,  and  on  the  28th  of  that  month  arrived  at  Mackinac.  The 
appearance  of  a  vessel  of  her  size,  armed  with  seven  cannon,  waking 
on  occasion  with  their  thunders  the  echoes  of  the  wilderness,  amazed 
the  natives,  who  had,  till  now,  never  seen  the  servants  of  their  great 
Onnonthio,  Louis  XIV.,  but  in  the  humbler  garb  and  equipage  of 
trappers  and  missionaries.  La  Salle  proceeded  in  state  to  hear  mass 
at  the  chapel  of  the  Ottawas  at  Mackinac,  and  then  continued  his 
voyage  of  vovage  prosperously  to  the  settlement  of  Green  Bay,  where 
the  Griffin.  ^Q  arrived  in  September.  Freighting  the  Griffin  with  furs, 
he  proceeded  to  St.  Joseph  at  the  head  of  Lake  Michigan,  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river  which  still  bears  that  name,  nearly  opposite  the 
river  Chicago.  Here  he  built  a  fort,  and  here  he  expected  the  Griffin, 
which  did  not  return,  however,  and  was  in  fact  never  again  heard  of. 


1679.] 


LA  SALLE  AND  FATHER   HENNEPIN. 


51] 


Anxious  though  lie  were,  lie  pushed  his  explorations  westward,  and 
somewhere  at  the  head  of  the  Illinois  River,  probably  in  the  very 
county  which  bears  his  name,  he  established  Fort  Creve-Coeur,  which 
took  its  name  from  his  depression  of  spirits  in  the  calamities  of  that 
sad  winter.  No  tidings  came  of  the  Griffin,  and  La  Salle  determined 
to  return  by  land  to  Niagara. 

He  first  detached  Father  Hennepin,  a  missionary,  with  one  com 
panion,  to  trace  the  Illinois  to  its  mouth,  and  then  to  ascend   IIennepi^g 
the   Mississippi  in  search  of  a  route  to  the  Pacific.     This  Journey- 
Hennepin  did.     He  appears  but  meanly  as  a  narrator,  or  as  a  voyager, 
in  comparison  with  the  modest  and  unselfish  Marquette.     He  availed 
himself  of  the  "  local  colouring  "  which  he 
thus  acquired,  to  give  probability  to  a  ly 
ing  narrative,  which  he  published  in  France 
some  years  afterward,  in  which  he  claimed 
for  himself  the  honor,  which  belongs  to  La 
Salle  alone,  of  tracing  the  river  to  the  Gulf 
of  Mexico.     There  is  no  better  instance  in 
literary  history  of  the  danger  of  such  an  at 
tempt,  or  the  certainty  that  it  will  furnish 
the  means  within  itself  to  disprove  its  own 
statements.     What  Hennepin  did  was  to  sail 
down  the  Illinois  to  its  mouth,  and  then  to 
ascend  the  Mississippi  as  far  as  the  falls  of 
St.  Anthony.     Here  he  was  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Sioux,  who  permitted  him  to  return 
to  his  countrymen,  on  condition  that  he  would  revisit  them  in  the 
next  year. 

La  Salle  had  left  his  companion  Henri  de  Tonty 1  in  charge  at  Crdve- 
Coeur  while  he  went  back  to  Niagara.  At  this 
time  however  the  Iroquois,  always  hostile  to  the 
French,  and  excited,  as  La  Salle  thought,  by  his 
personal  enemies,  attacked  the  Illinois,  among 
whom  the  fort  was  situated:2  Tonty's  whole 
garrison  was  five  men.  He  found  himself 
obliged  to  evacuate  OSve-Coeur  and  to  return.  While  he  passed 
down  Lake  Michigan  on  its  west  side,  La  Salle  passed  up  on  the  other 
with  reinforcements.  His  heart  must  have  quailed  again  ^^iwi 
when  he  came  to  Crdve-Cceur  to  find  it  deserted.  After  this  rpturn- 
failure,  he  could  only  do  his  best  to  secure  alliances  with  the  Indians, 

1  He  was  son  of  Lorenzo  Tonty,  who  invented  the  Tontine. 

2  Mr.  Parkman  lias  identified  the  site  of  the  great  town  of  the  Illinois.     It  is  near  Utica, 
La  Salle  County,  Illinois. 


Sioux  Chief  (from  Catlm). 


Signature  of  Tonty. 


512 


THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 


and  then  returned  to  Montreal.  Here  he  had  to  compound  with 
his  creditors,  for  the  loss  of  the  Griffin  left  him  unable  to  meet  his 
pecuniary  obligations.  He  said,  himself,  that  with  the  exception  of 
the  governor,  Count  Frontenac,  it  seemed  as  if  every  man  in  Canada 
were  opposed  to  his  adventure.  He  succeeded,  however,  in  bring 
ing  together  the  resources  for  his  undertaking,  and  started  once 
more,  on  the  expedition  which  proved  successful,  in  the  summer  of 
1681.1 

The  party  embarked  on  Lake  Erie  at  the  end  of  August,  and  ar 
rived  at  the  port  at  St.  Joseph  early  in  November.      La  Salle  there 


Site  of  Chicago 

chose  for  his  party  twenty-three  Frenchmen  and  eighteen  Indians,  of 
the  Abnakis  and  Mohegans,  New  England  tribes,  which  had  put 
themselves  under  his  protection.  Daniel  Coxe,  in  his  memorial  to 
William  III.,  cited  above,  says  that  these  native  New  Englanders 
were  chosen,  because  they  had  in  the  year  before  accompanied  a  con 
siderable  number  of  adventurers  from  New  England  to  the  Missis 
sippi.  The  statement  is  probable  enough,  but  the  narrative  to  which 
Coxe  refers  has  not  yet  been  found  in  the  Massachusetts  archives. 
The  Indians  took  with  them  ten  of  their  wives  and  these  women  had 
three  children.  The  whole  party  thus  consisted  of  fifty-four  persons, 
among  whom  were  the  Chevalier  Henri  de  Tonty,  Father  Zenobe,  of 

1  We  have  his  own  narrative,  written  in  the  third  person,  recently  discovered  in  the  ar 
chives  in  France,  and  printed  in  Thomassy's  Geology  of  Louisiana.  We  have  also  Jou- 
tel's  narrative,  and  that  of  the  Chevalier  Tonty. 


1682.]  LA  SALLE'S   SECOND   EXPEDITION.  513 

the  Recollet  Order,  and  Dautray,  the  son  of  the  procureur  general  of 
Quebec. 

They  crossed  the  lake  to  the  Chicago  River,  to  which  they  had 
given  the  name  of  the  Divine  River.1  Time  has  preserved  the  native 
name,  of  which  the  derivation  is  not  savory,  and,  as  time  will,  has 
forgotten  the  piety  of  the  discoverers.  This  river  proved 

«'  Second  6X- 

to  be  frozen,  and  Tonty,  who  commanded  the  advance,  had  pedition  of 
to  build  sledges  for  the  party  and  its  boats.  They  left  the 
site  of  the  present  city  of  Chicago  on  the  27th  of  January,  1682,  and 
were  obliged  to  haul  their  luggage  and  provisions  eighty  leagues.  On 
this  march  they  passed  the  chief  village  of  the  Illinois,  but  the  tribe 
wintered  elsewhere.  At  the  widening  of  the  river  where  Fort  Cr£ve- 
Co3iir  stood,  which  they  called  Lake  Pimedy,  they  found  the  ice 
melted.  Here  they  were  able  to  launch  their  canoes,  and  in  them 
they  arrived  at  the  mouth  of  the  Illinois  on  the  6th  of  February. 
La  Salle  placed  this  point  at  38°  of  north  latitude.  In  this  calculation 
lie  was  a  degree  too  far  south. 

The  ice  of  the  Mississippi  detained  them  for  a  week,  when  they 
sailed.  The  next  day,  on  the  fourteenth,  they  passed  the  village  of 
Tamaroa,  but  here,  also,  they  found  no  inhabitants,  and  they  con 
tinued  their  voyage  for  more  than  a  hundred  leagues  without  meeting 
any  person.  On  the  first  of  March,  having  lost  one  of  his  hunters, 
La  Salle  established  a  fort  on  shore,  and  ordered  several  excursions  in 
hope  of  finding  him.  In  one  of  these  two  natives  were  taken  prison 
ers,  who  said  that  they  were  Sicachas.  They  were  probably  of  our 
tribe  of  Chickasaws.2  They  said  their  town  was  distant  a  day  and  a 
half's  journey.  But,  after  La  Salle  had  accompanied  them  for  that 
time,  the  town  proved  to  be  still  three  days  off,  and  he  refused  Lo 
go  farther.  One  of  them  returned  with  him,  and  the  other  said 
he  would  bring  the  chiefs  to  the  river.  La  Salle  returned  to  his  boats, 
—  the  lost  hunter  had  meanwhile  been  found,3  —  and  on  the  3d  of 
March  he  continued  his  voyage. 

On  the  13th,  after  sailing  forty-five  leagues,  the  sound  of  drums 
and  war-cries  gave  notice  that  the  savages  had  discovered 
them,  and  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river  their  village  could  with  to 
be  seen.     La  Salle  established  himself  at  once  on  the  left 
bank  and  in  an  hour's  time  built  a  fort  on  a  point  of  land  there.     The 
Indian  chiefs  sent  across  a  canoe,  —  the  occupants  of  which  received 
the  calumet  of  peace,  —  and  pleasant  relations  were  at  once  opened 

1  La  Salle's  text  is  distinct.    "  Pour  aller  vers  la  riviere  Divine,  appelee  par  les  Sauvages 
Chicagou."     On  many  of  the  maps  the  name  Divine  is  given  to  the  Illinois. 

2  Their  name  is  mentioned  in  the  narratives  of  De  Soto. 

3  The  hunter's  name  was  Prudhomme,  and  was  given  to  a  fort  at  this  place,  which  re 
tained  that  name  long  after. 

VOL.  ii.  33 


514 


THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CiiAr.  XXI. 


between  the  parties.  La  Salle  remained  with  his  hosts  three  days, 
and,  when  he  left,  they  provisioned  him  from  their  stores.  He  no 
ticed,  at  once,  the  difference  between  them  and  the  northern  Indians. 
"  These  are  better  formed,"  he  says,  "  free,  courteous,  and  of  a  gay 
humour.  The  northern  Indians  are  all  triste  and  of  severe  disposi 
tion." 

This  village  is  described  as  opposite  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio.  "  Many 
kinds  of  fruits  and  peaches  were  already  formed  on  the  trees."  La 
Salle  planted  a  cross  there,  with  King  Louis's  arms,  and  on  his  re 
turn,  he  found  they  had  surrounded  the  cross  with  a  palisade.  They 
also  gave  him  provisions,  and  interpreters  to  communic.ate  with  their 
allies,  the  Taensas,  eighty  leagues  further  down. 


The  Taen- 

8&S. 


Wisconsin    Indians  gathering  Wild   Rice. 

On  the  22d  he  came  to  the  Taensas,  whom  he  found  living  in  eight 
villages.  He  had  passed,  without  stopping,  the  villages  of 
the  Arkansas.  He  describes  the  houses  of  the  Taensas  as 
built  of  walls  of  mud  and  straw,  the  roof  of  canes,  which  form  a  dome 
ornamented  by  painting.  "  They  have  bedsteads  and  other  furniture 
and  embellishments.  They  have  temples  in  which  they  bury  the 
bones  of  their  chiefs,  and  they  are  clothed  with  white  robes,  made  of 
the  bark  of  a  tree,  which  they  spin."  The  whole  account  shows  rela 
tionship  to  the  Natchez  and,  probably,  to  Mexican  or  other  Southern 
tribes.  Their  chief  received  De  Tonty  hospitably,  La  Salle  having 


1682.] 


LA   SALLE'S   GREAT   DISCOVERY. 


515 


sent  him  as  his  ambassador.  Continuing  their  navigation,  the  French 
opened  communication  with  the  Natchez,  who  told  them  that  they 
were  still  ten  days  from  the  sea.  On  the  2d  of  April  they  were 
for  the  first  time  attacked  by  Indians,  who  belonged  to  a  tribe  called 
Quinipisa.1  The  French  had  offered  them  the  calumet,  but  the  sav 
ages  fired  their  arrows  and  fled.  La  Salle  did  not  pursue  them,  but 
kept  on  his  course.  On  the  6th  the  river  divided  into  three  branches. 
La  Salle  took  the  west,  he  sent  De  Tonty  to  the  middle,  and  Dautray 
to  the  left.  Two  leagues  farther  and  the  water  was  salt,  —  a  little 
more,  —  and  the  sea  appeared,  and  the  great  discovery  was  made  !  - 

On  the  9th  of  April,  La  Salle  planted  a  cross  with  the  arms  of 
France.     They  sang  the  hymn    Vexilla  Regis  and  the   Te  ^^neat 
Deum,  and  in  the  name  of  King  Louis  he  took  possession  of  oflh^Tnt 
the  river  and  all  the  streams  which  fall  into  it,  and  all  the  sissiPPL 
countries  which  belong  to  them.     This  act  of  possession  has  been  sub 
stantially  respected  ever  since.    It 
is  under  this  act  that  France  held 
her  rights  to  the  great  province 
known  as  Louisiana,  —  and,  there 
fore,  it  is  under  this  act  that  the 
United  States  holds  the  State  of 
Louisiana,    and   all    its   territory 
north  of  the  line  of  Texas  and 
west   of    the   Mississippi   to   the 
Rocky  Mountains,  to   this   day. 
It  must  be  remembered,  that,  un 
til  1803,  the  name  LOUISIANA  ap 
plies    to    the   whole    Mississippi 
valley. 

La     Salle's     provisions     were 
nearly    exhausted.      The     party 
found  some  dried  meat  near  the 
mouth   of    the     river,    and    were 
glad  to  satisfy  their  hunger  with 
it,  till  the  suspicion  was  started 
that  it  was  the  flesh  of  men.     On  this  the  whites  left  it  to  the  savages, 
who  declared  it  was  delicious.2    On  the  10th  of  April,  La  Salle 
began  his  return ;  and,  until  they  came  to  the  Quinipisa  In 
dians,  the  party  had  to  live  on  alligator's  flesh  and  potatoes.     He  suc- 

1  On  the  map,  as  drawn  by  Franquelin,  this  is  spelled  Kennipesa,  the  same  as  were  after 
wards  spelled  Colapissas,  and  Aqueloupissas,  "  Those  who  hear  and  see." 

2  See  report  of  Father  Zenobe,  of  which  the  original  is  in  possession  of  M.  Dooz,  of 
Baton  Rouge. 


Portrait  of   Louis   XIV. 


His  return. 


516  THE   FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 

ceeded  in  capturing  four  women  of  the  Quinipisa ;  he  explained  to  them 
that  his  intentions  were  peaceable,  and  by  their  means  purchased  maize 
and  other  supplies  from  the  tribe.  He  was  well  received  by  the  Taen- 
sas  and  Arkansas,  arriving  at  the  villages  of  the  latter  on  the  17th  of 
May.  When  he  was  a  hundred  leagues  below  the  Illinois  River  he 
fell  dangerously  ill.  He  was  therefore  obliged  to  intrust  his  dispatches 
to  De  Tonty,  who  went  on  in  advance.  La  Salle  himself  was  detained 
forty  days  by  his  illness.  He  arrived  at  St.  Joseph  at  the  end  of  Sep 
tember,  but  the  approach  of  winter  prevented  his  return  to  Quebec. 
"  He  thus  finished,"  he  says  in  closing  his  report,  "  the  most  important 
and  difficult  discovery  which  has  ever  been  made  by  any  Frenchman, 
without  the  loss  of  a  single  man,  in  the  same  country  where  Jean 
Ponce  de  Leon,  Pamphile  de  Narvaez,  and  Ferdinand  de  Soto  per 
ished  unsuccessful,  with  more  than  two  thousand  Spaniards.  No 
Spaniard  ever  carried  through  such  an  enterprise  with  so  small  a 
force,  in  presence  of  so  many  enemies.  But  he  has  gained  no  advan 
tage  for  himself.  His  misfortunes  and  the  frequent  obstacles  in  his 
way  have  cost  him  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  livres.  Still  he 
will  be  happy  if  he  has  done  anything  for  the  advantage  of  France, 
and  if  his  endeavors  may  win  for  him  the  protection  of  Monseigneur." 

Father  Mambre"  took  to  France  La  Salle's  report  of  his  great  dis- 
iiis  report  covery.  Unfortunately  for  the  great  explorer,  Count  Fron- 
to  France,  tenac  had  been  replaced  by  M.  de  la  Barre,  who  had  con 
ceived  a  dislike  of  La  Salle.  He  had  written  home,  charging  him 
with  the  Iroquois  war  ;  and  he  afterwards  represented  that  La  Salle 
was  a  mischief-maker  among  the  Indians,  who  perverted  his  royal 
commission  for  the  purposes  of  mere  trade.  But  so  soon  as  La  Salle 
himself  was  able  to  report  in  person  at  Paris,  he  swept  away  any  in 
jurious  impressions  which  had  been  thus  made.  The  French  mon 
archy  was  never  at  a  higher  point  of  success  or  ambition.  The  peace 
of  Nimeguen  in  1678  had  given  to  Louis  almost  all  he  could  ask  for. 
Seignelay.  the  Minister  of  Marine,  listened  with  pleasure  to  La  Salle's 
narratives.1  He  sent  directions  to  La  Barre  to  restore  Fort  Frontenac, 
on  the  Niagara,  to  his  agents  ;  and  to  La  Salle  himself  he  gave  large 
powers  for  the  colonization  of  Louisiana. 

In  the  memoir,  which  is  still  preserved,  which  La  Salle  addressed 
to  the  Marquis  Seignelay,  he  proposes  to  establish  a  colony  sixty 
leagues  above  the  mouth  of  the  river.  This  would  have  been,  accord 
ing  to  his  own  map,  not  far  from  the  point  where  the  Atchafalaya 
makes  a  separate  course  from  the  Mississippi  to  the  sea,  —  and  it  is 
probable  that  he  intended  at  that  point  to  establish  his  colony.  With- 

1  On  Franquelin's  map,  made  in  1684,  under  La  Salle's  direction,  the  Mississippi  is 
named  the  "  Colbert,"  and  the  Red  River  is  named  the  "  Seignelay." 


1685.]  LA   SALLE'S   VOYAGE   TO   TEXAS.  517 

out  any  disguise,  he  proposes,  as  the  principal  object  of  this  colony, 
such  an  attack  on  the  back  of  the  Spanish  possessions,  as  was  to  open 
to  the  French  their  thirty  silver  mines  in  New  Biscay.  And  he  coolly 
remarks,  that  if  the  peace  of  Europe  makes  it  necessary  to  postpone 
such  designs,  it  will  be  well  to  be  prepared  for  them  in  the  event  of  a 
war.  He  says  that  Spain  makes  six  million  crowns  yearly  by  these 
mines,  and  that,  with  superior  ease  of  transport  of  silver,  France  will 
make  much  more.  La  Salle  is  truly  enough  called  a  representative 
of  the  spirit  of  chivalry,  and  to  the  real  spirit  of  the  chivalrous  ages 
such  a  proposition  as  this  not  unfitly  belongs. 

Seignelay  and  the  King  gave  him  more  than  he  asked  for.  The 
colonists  sailed  from  Rochelle  on  the  24th  of  July,  1684,  ad-  Lagan^ 
mirably  well  equipped,  in  four  vessels,  —  a  part  of  a  fleet  thirdv°yase- 
of  twenty-five,  of  which  the  others  were  bound  to  the  French  West 
Indies  and  to  Canada.  But  the  passage  across  the  Atlantic  was  then 
long.  Much  time  was  consumed  in  stopping  at  San  Domingo,  and  the 
year  had  almost  ended  before  the  squadron  of  La  Salle  was  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  By  a  terrible  misfortune,  due  to  the  diffi 
culty  of  rightly  calculating  longitude  in  those  times,1  they  passed  the 
true  mouth  of  the  great  river. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1685,  La  Salle  landed,  —  perhaps  on  the 
southern  shore  of  our  State  of  Louisiana,  near  the  Sabine,  —  but  he 
could  learn  nothing  from  the  Indians,  and  continued  west  for  a 
fortnight  longer.  When  they  found  the  coast  trending  south,  they 
were  sure  of  their  own  error.  But  the  captain  of  the  fleet,  Beaujeu, 
refused  to  return  along  the  coast,  and  after  an  altercation  between  him 
and  La  Salle,  the  vessels  entered  Matagorda  Bay,  which  they  called 
the  Bay  of  St.  Bernard.  Here  the  stores  of  the  colony  were 
landed,  and  here  Beaujeu,  who  had  been  at  cross-purposes,  Matagorda 
left  them.  By  such  a  series  of  misfortunes  did  it  happen  Ba>' 
that  the  State  of  Texas  was  the  earliest,  after  Florida,  of  the  States 
which  we  call  Gulf  States,  to  be  colonized  by  Europeans.  Beaujeu 
left  the  party  on  the  12th  of  March,2  under  circumstances  of  cruel 
desertion.  On  his  return  to  France  he  made  the  most  unfavorable 
report,  and  to  him,  and  possibly  to  Jesuit  hatred,  may  it  be  attributed 
that  no  relief  was  sent  out  to  the  great  explorer. 

To  the  stream  which  flows  into  Matagorda  Bay  from  the  northwest, 
La  Salle  gave  the  name  Les  Vetches,  from  the  buffaloes  he  found 

1  A  quarter  of  a  century  after,  Sir  Cloudesley  Shovel  and  his  fleet  were  lost  on  the  coast 
of  Cornwall,  because  their  longitude  was  more  than  a  degree  out  of  the  way. 

2  He  left  among  other  stores  eight  cannon,  which  the  King  had  given  to  the  colony. 
They  were  lately  to  be  seen  at  Goliad,  identified  by  having  Louis  XIV.'s  mark  upon 
them. 


518  THE  FRENCH  IN   THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.     [CHAP.  XXI. 

there.  Near  the  same  spot,  the  town  of  Lavaca  retains  the  name, 
the  only  name  given  by  La  Salle  to  his  establishments  in  Texas  which 
has  been  preserved.  The  name  St.  Louis  was  given  to  the  new  settle- 
The  Texas  nient.  The  Indians,  whom  he  found  in  Texas,  were  of  the 
same  great  race  as  the  tribes  he  had  met  on  the  Mississippi. 
They  had  large  and  populous  villages,  with  well-built  cabins,  said  to 


La  Salle's   Landing  in  Texas  (reduced  fac-simile  from   Hennepin). 

be  sometimes  forty  and  fifty  feet  high.1  They  had  traded  with  the 
Spaniards  for  horses,  clothing,  spurs,  and  silver  spoons,  and  knew  what 
money  was.  La  Salle  found  them  gentle  and  hospitable.  Among 
such  tribes  he  was  to  pass  what  little  was  left  of  his  adventurous  life. 

1  Father  Douay's  narrative.     It  is  supposed  that  the  name  Texas  is  from  the  Spanish 
Tejas,  in  allusion  to  these  covered  houses. 


1687.]  LA  SALLE'S   OVERLAND  JOURNEY.  519 

His  colony  once  sufficiently  established,  he  left  it  on  the  1st  of  No 
vember,  1685,  on  an  expedition  of  discovery,  always  hoping  to  find, 
what  Joutel,  his  second  in  command,  learned  to  call  "  his  unfortunate 
river."  Once  and  again  from  such  expeditions,  in  which  he  trav 
ersed  Texas  far  in  different  ^^ 
routes,  he  returned  to  the  set-  f 
tlement,  always  to  hear  some  ^ 
new  story  of  misadventure.  **^ 
But  his  own  buoyant  and  easy 
temper  would  restore  the  spirits 

.        .  -   ,  ,  ,      „      ,  Signature  of  Beaujeu. 

of  his  men,  and  he  would  find 

new  resource  in  every  difficulty.  At  last,  at  the  end  of  1686,  he  de 
termined  to  lead  a  party  across  to  Canada  to  obtain  succors  from 
France  for  the  colony,  for  which,  thanks  to  Beaujeu's  treachery,  no 
supplies  had  arrived  in  two  years'  time. 

On  the  7th  of  January,  1687,  this  hero,  who  combines  in  his  own 
character  so  much  that  would  have  challenged  regard  in  a 
chevalier  of  the  days  of  Philip  Augustus,  —  and  would  com-  journey  to 
mand  respect  in'  the  vigorous  enterprises  of  to  day,  —  left 
the  wretched  colony,  on  what  was  to  prove  his  last  adventure.     For 
want  of  better  material,  the  clothing  which  he  and  his  men  wore  was 
made  from  the  sails  of  the  little  vessel  which  had  been  lost.     He  was 
to  lead  his  party  nearly  two  thousand  miles  overland.     The  same 
journey  may  be  made  to-day  by  railroad,  and  the  traveller  if  he 
chooses,  takes  his  ease.     But  even  now,  no  man  thinks  the  journey  a 
trifle.     Poor  La  Salle  and  his  companions  were  to  make  it  with  little 
guidance  beside  that  which  the  compass  gave  them,  and  must  trust  to 
their  weapons  or  their  address,  to  secure  their  passage  among  hostile 
tribes. 

He  had  bought  five  horses  from  the  Indians,  who  had  already 
learned  the  use  of  horses  from  the  Spaniards.  These  beasts  were 
used  as  pack-horses  for  the  party.  Twenty  of  the  colonists,  among 
whom  were  seven  women  and  girls  and  some  children,  were  to  remain 
behind  under  Barbier,  a  hunter,  who  had  been  married  since  their  ar 
rival  in  America,  and  who  was  appointed  governor  in  the  place  of 
Joutel.  La  Salle  made  them  a  farewell  address  in  his  own  engaging 
way,  and  all  who  were  to  stay,  while  they  felt  the  necessity  of  his 
journey,  were  melted  to  tears.  Yet,  doubtless,  they  felt  that  their 
dangers  were  less  than  his. 

The  travelling  party  consisted  of  about  twenty  also.     La  Salle  and 
his  brother  Cavelier,  the  priest,  with  their  two  nephews,  —  Ija  Salle,g 
Joutel  and  Father  Anastasius,  Duhaut  and  Liotot,  the  sur-  comPanions- 
geon,  were  those  who  seemed  the  most  distinguished  of  the  party. 


620          THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI   VALLEY.     [CHAP.  XXL 

Beside  them  were  a  man  named  Hiens,  who  had  been  a  buccaneer, 
and  was  sometimes  known  as  English  Jem,  and  Nika,  a  faithful 
Shawnee  Indian. 

In  that  climate,  there  is  no  real  hardship  in  travelling  in  January, 

and  had  the  party  been  better  provided, 
^  wou^  nave  made  rapid  progress,  com- 
pared  with  what  proved  possible.  But 

Signature  of  Cavelier.  *  , -i    ,f 

they  lacked  shoes,  until  they  could  sup 
ply  their  place  with  buffalo-hide  and  deer-skin.  The  rivers  were 
swollen,  and  they  were  obliged  to  make  boats  from  hides  to  ferry 
them.  Thus  they  crossed  the  Brazos,  and  in  two  months'  time,  they 
approached  Trinity  River.  Nothing  but  the  scantiness  of  their  equip 
ment,  and  the  fullness  of  the  streams  and  rivers,  accounts  for  the  slow 
ness  of  their  progress.  Meanwhile  the  members  of  the  party  were 
not  on  good  terms.  La  Salle  appeared  reserved  and  anxious,  and 
Liotot  and  Duhaut  had  quarrelled  with  young  Moranget,  his  nephew. 

On  the  15th  of  March,  La  Salle  sent  a  party  from  camp  to  find 
some  provisions  which  he  had  left  on  his  last  expedition.  They  found 
the  provision  spoiled, —  but  they  killed  two  buffaloes,  and  sent  to  La 
Salle  for  horses  to  bring  the  meat.  La  Salle  sent  Moranget  and  two 
others  with  the  horses.  They  found  the  successful  hunters,  among 
whom  were  Duhaut,  Liotot,  and  Heins,  already  curing  the  meat. 
Moranget,  hot-headed  boy  as  he  was,  broke  into  rage  with  them,  be 
cause  they  had  put  by  for  themselves  some  part  of  the  meat,  to 
which  the  customs  of  hunting  entitled  them.  It  was  not  the  first  of 
Mutiny  in  Moranget's  outbursts  of  rage.  Duhaut  was  so  angry,  that 
the  camp.  jie  conspu.e^  with  the  others  to  kill  Moranget,  —  and,  as  he 
knew  the  fidelity  of  Nika  the  Indian,  and  Saget,  La  Salle's  servant, 
their  death  also  was  determined.  Night  came,  the  three  victims  each 
served  his  watch  in  turn.  So  soon  as  they  slept,  Duhaut  and  Heins 
stood  by  with  their  guns  cocked,  —  and  Liotot,  with  an  axe,  killed  the 
three  sleeping  men.  La  Salle  was  six  miles  away. 

They  did  not  dare  join  him.  When  the  others  had  been  absent  two 
days,  La  Salle  sought  them  in  his  anxiety,  accompanied  by  the  friar 
Anastasius.  As  they  walked  he  talked  with  the  priest  on  religious 
themes,  and  of  his  gratitude  to  God  for  his  safety  in  twenty  years' 
peril.  Suddenly  he  was  overcome  with  profound  sadness,  and  was  so 
much  moved  that  Father  Anastasius  scarcely  knew  him.  They  came 
near  Duhaut's  camp,  and  La  Salle  noticed  two  birds  of  prey  hovering 
above.  •  He  saw  on  the  ground  a  piece  of  bloody  clothing.  He  fired 
Murder  of  n^s  *wo  pistols  to  summon  the  hunters.  They  heard  the 
La  saiie.  snots,  and  crossed  a  little  river  to  meet  him.  La  Salle  asked 
for  his  nephew.  One  of  them  replied  insolently,  that  "  Moranget 


1687.]  FATE   OF   LA   SALLE   AND   HIS    COLONY.  521 

was  along  the  river."     La  Salle  rebuked  him.     Duhaut  fired  his  gun 
in  reply,  and  La  Salle  fell  dead,  —  shot  through  the  brain. 

"There  you  are,  great  pashaw,"  1  — this  was  the  contemptuous  cry 
of  the  false  surgeon.  Such  was  the  death  of  one  of  the  noblest  heroes 
of  France,  when  he  seemed  at  the  very  prime  of  his  life.  He  was 
only  forty-three  years  old.  Had  he  lived,  with  his  spirit  and  power 
of  command,  to  carry  out  the  enterprise  he  had  planned,  the  history 
of  Louisiana  must  have  been  different.  By  his  death,  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi  was  left  for  nearly  twenty  years  more  to  be  the  home 
of  savages. 

After  his  death,  the  first  history  of  his  colony,  which  had  left  France 
in  such  high  hope,  sinks  into  the  separate  effort  of  the  colonists  to 
escape  with  their  lives  from  a  wilderness.  In  a  quarrel  Death  of 
among  the  murderers,  Duhaut,  who  had  himself  fired  the  fa-  Duhaut- 
tal  shot  which  killed  La  Salle,  was  himself  killed,  and  the  little  com 
pany  afterwards  broke  in  pieces.  Joutel,  Father  Anastasius,  —  the  two 
relatives  of  La  Salle,  —  and  four  others,  made  a  separate  party,  which 
persevered  towards  Canada.  They  had  horses,  which  they  had  ob 
tained  from  the  natives,  and,  by  following  a  northeast  course,  from 
the  country  of  the  Caddos,  above  the  lake  of  that  name  on  Red  River, 
they  came  out,  to  their  delight,  on  the  24th  of  July,  upon  a  cottage 
built  in  the  French  fashion,  and  a  cross  upon  the  northern  side  of  the 
Arkansas  River,  just  above  the  place  where  it  unites  with  the  Missis 
sippi. 

The  cottage  was  the  home  of  two  Frenchmen,  Charpentier  and  De 
Launay,  both  of  the  city  of  Rouen,  whom  De  Tonty,  La  Salle's  old 
companion,  had  left  at  the  junction  of  the  Arkansas  and  Mississippi, 
in  the  spring  of  1685.  De  Tonty  had  gone  down  the  river,  in  vain, 
in  hopes  to  meet  his  old  chief  there.  The  names  of  these  Frenchmen 
deserve  permanent  record,  as  those  of  the  persons  who  established  the 
first  permanent  post  of  Europeans  south  of  the  Illinois  River,  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi. 

From  this  point  the  friends  of  La  Salle  went  home  by  routes  now 
familiar  to  the  French.  The  fate  of  the  twenty  colonists  left  at  St. 
Louis,  in  Matagorda  Bay,  is  not  clear.  A  Spanish  officer,  dispatched 
to  find  them  in  1689,  found  only  the  deserted  settlement.  Two  of  the 

1  "  Te  voila,  grand  bacha,  te  voila."  Joutel's  narrative.  There  are  three  narratives  by 
members  of  this  wretched  expedition  :  Father  Cavelier,  Joutel's,  and  that  of  Father  Anas 
tasius.  We  have  followed  Mr.  Parkman's  thrilling  narrative.  The  spot  is  not  determined. 
The  Texan  historian  supposes  it  to  have  been  near  the  Neches  River  where  the  old  Indian 
trail  crosses  that  stream.  Yoakum's  Hist,  of  Texas,  i.  38.  But  the  old  map  of  De  Lisle 
places  it  distinctly  at  a  point  about  seven  miles  west  of  Trinity  River,  in  the  county  of  San 
Jacinto,  not  very  far  from  the  field  of  the  critical  battle  known  by  that  name. 


522  THE  FRENCH  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAP.  XXI. 

murderous  party  were  arrested  by  the  same  officer,  and  were  even 
tually  condemned  to  the  Spanish  mines.  Thus  the  first  French  effort 
to  colonize  the  southwest  left  no  sign,  in  1689,  but  the  cottage  of  the 
two  Frenchmen  who  were  established  at  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas, 
with  the  addition  of  a  third  from  La  Salle's  party. 

The  successful  colonization  of  Louisiana,  and  from  Louisiana  up 
wards,  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  was  due  not  to  the  spirit  of 
chivalry,  so  far  as  that  was  represented  by  La  Salle,  or  to  his  chival 
rous  plans  for  seizing  the  Spanish  silver  mines,  but  to  more  modern 
developments  of  the  spirit  of  mercantile  adventure. 

It  is  probable  that  the  long  and  successful  enterprises  of  La  Salle 
Canadian  an(i  u^s  companions  were  the  first  steps  which  led  to  the  edu- 
expiorers.  catioii  of  a  race  of  men  still  existing,  known  as  the  Cana 
dian  Voyageurs.  In  all  the  great  river  adventures  of  North  America 
from  those  days  down,  these  voyageurs  have  taken  their  part,  humble, 
but  none  the  less  essential.  The  names  of  such  men  are  in  the  nar 
ratives  of  Hearne  and  Mackenzie,  of  Lewis  and  Clarke,  of  Franklin, 
Back,  and  the  Simpsons.  The  nomenclature  which  they  have  created 
is  still  in  use  on  all  the  American  rivers  between  New  Brunswick 
and  California,  and  their  readiness  to  undertake  any  of  the  hardships 
of  a  campaigner's  life  makes  them  favored  volunteers  in  the  compo 
sition  of  any  expedition  of  adventure.  From  the  time  when  De  Tonty 
went  down  the  river  in  1686,  in  unsuccessful  hope  of  meeting  La 
Salle,  there. was,  perhaps,  not  a  single  year  that  some  of  these  voy 
ageurs  did  not  u  try  the  adventure  "  of  the  Mississippi  in  whole  or  in 
part.1 

But  it  was  not  for  ten  years  after  La  Salle's  death  that  the  French 
Crown  made  any  effort  to  renew  the  colonization  of  the  Mississippi 
valley.  The  work  was  then  put  into  competent  hands. 

The  Sieur  Lemoyne  d'Iberville  was  the  third  of  eleven  brothers, 
sons  of  Charles  Lemoyne,  Baron  Longueuil,  of  Canada.  To  him  was 
intrusted  the  oversight  of  an  expedition  fitted  out  by  the  King  to  plant 
a  colony.  Two  frigates  conveyed  the  colonists,  of  which 
D'Iberville  himself  commanded  the  larger,  so  that  the  evils 
of  a  divided  command,  which  had  broken  the  strength  of 
La  Salle's  effort,  were  avoided.  A  third  vessel  joined  at  Saint  Do 
mingo,  and  on  the  25th  of  January,  1699,  the  expedition  arrived  at 
the  island  of  St.  Rosa,  just  below  Pensacola.  At  this  point  the 
Spaniards  had  established  themselves  more  than  a  month  before. 

1  It  has  been  said  that  a  party  went  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  as  early  as  1686. 
No  such  party  made  a  permanent  establishment ;  this  statement  is  derived  from  some  recol 
lection  of  De  Tonty 's  expedition. 


1700.]  D'IBERVILLE  AND  BIENVILLE.  523 

D'Iberville  spent  some  weeks  in  exploring  the  coast,  and  on  the  2d 
of  March  entered  the  Mississippi  River.  He  had  with  him  Father 
Anastasius,  who  ^ 
had  accompanied  hs 
La  Salle,  and  who  ****** 
found  no  difficulty 

.    .  .  Signature  of   D'Iberville. 

in   recognizing  its 

turbid  waters  and  its  majestic  flow.  Evidence  more  convincing  to 
D'Iberville  was  found,  when,  forty  leagues  up  the  river,  they  found 
the  Bayagoula  Indians,  who  brought  out  cloaks  which  La  Salle  had 
given  them,  a  breviary  which  Father  Anastasius  had  left  in  1682,  and 
a  letter  which  De  Tonty  had  left  in  1686.  They  called  it  "a  speaking 
bark." l  D'Iberville's  first  post  was  at  Biloxi  Island,  in  Mobile  Bay. 
He  returned  to  France,  and  was  again  despatched  to  the  river.  He 
founded  his  second  post  at  a  point  on  the  Mississippi,  now  known  as 
Poverty  Point,  about  thirty-eight  miles  below  the  present  city  of  New 
Orleans. 

The  settlement  at  Biloxi  was  within  the  limits  of  the  present  State 
of  Alabama,  and  was  the  first  establishment  of  whites  there. 
It  was  abandoned  after  a  year  for  a  station  further  up  on  ment  at  BI- 
the  Mobile  River,  about  eighteen  leagues  from  the  sea.    The 
settlement  at  Poverty  Point  was  the  first  settlement  made  in  Lou 
isiana.    It  was  established  in  1700.     By  this  time  D'Iberville  had  the 
assistance  of  a  Canadian  colony  to  meet  him  by  the  way  of  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Miami  portage. 

While  D'Iberville  was  absent  in  France,  his  brother  Bienville  fell 
in  with  an  English  ship,  commanded  by  Captain  Barr,  which  was 
twenty-eight  leagues  up  the  river,  having  been  sent  out  to  explore 
and  take  possession  of  the  Mississippi.  Bienville  boldly  told  him 
that  the  Mississippi  was  farther  west,  that  this  river  was  a  depend 
ency  of  Canada  of  which  he  had  taken  possession,  and  Barr  went 
in  search  of  the  great  river,  just  where  poor  La  Salle  had  looked 
for  it  so  vainly.  The  reach  of  the.  river  where  this  intervieAv  took 
place  is  still  known  as  the  "  English  turn."  •  The  expedition  thus  ar 
rested  was  a  private  expedition  sent  out  by  Coxe,  an  Englishman, 
who  held  a  charter  given  by  Charles  L,  for  a  supposed  province  of 
Carolana  or  West  Florida.  Our  only  other  account  of  this  expedi 
tion  is  by  Coxe's  son,  and  was  published  twenty  years  after.  He 
complains  that  the  captain  of  one  ship  deserted  the  other,  but  says 
that  one  of  the  two  ascended  the  river  one  hundred  miles.2 

1  "  iZcorce  parlante." 

2  The  younger  Coxe's  map  is  drawn  to  show  that  all  of  southern  Louisiana,  except  the 


524 


THE  FREXCPI  IN  THE  MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.    [CHAI>.  XXI. 


During  the  war  of  succession,  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  Spain  and  France  were  in  alliance,  and  the  Spanish  governors, 

both  of  Mexico  and  of 
Florida,  rendered  one  and 
another  service  to  the  in 
fant  French  colony  which 
D'Iberville,  and  his  brothers 
Bienville  and  Serigny,  re 
quited  as  they  could  in  their 
weakness.1  The  history  of 
the  infant  State  is  but  little 
more  than  that  of  a  small 
garrison,  whose  enterprising 
commanders  were  making 
alliances  with  the  neigh 
boring  savages.  Communi 
cation  was  constantly  kept 
up  with  Canada,  and  in 
1700,  Le  Sceur,  an  explorer 
of  mines,  went  so  far  as 
Lake  Superior,  and  re 
turned,  with  what  the 
chronicler  says  was  two 
hundred  thousand  pounds 
of  copper  ore.2  It  must  be 
doubted  whether  any  such 
quantity  was  carried  across  the  Portages  of  Wisconsin  or  Minne 
sota,  especially  as  Le  Soaur's  journal  says  that  it  was  in  three  ca 
noes. 

The  pacification  of  Europe  resulting  from  the  Treaty  of  Utrecht, 
gave  the  signal  for  an  enlargement  of  the  little  colony.  At  that  time 
the  military  force  in  Louisiana  did  not  exceed  one  hundred  French 
soldiers,  and  seventy-five  Canadians.  There  were  perhaps  three  hun- 

very  months  of  the  Mississippi,  was  included  in  the  charter  of  "Carolana,"  that  is,  was 
north  of  31°  north  latitude.  The  line  of  31°  is  the  northern  line  of  our  State  of  Florida, 
and  the  southern  of  the  greater  part  of  Mississippi.  Coxe  claims  the  river  for  England  on 
the  ground  that  his  father's  ship  was  the  first  to  enter  it  from  the  sea.  It  probably  was, 
but  the  claim  of  discovery  is  absurd.  Still,  had  William  the  Third  lived  longer,  he  might 
have  followed  up  this  claim. 

1  Archiv  de  la  Marine.     No.  9,  No.  458  in  Mr.  Forstall's  list. 

2  La  Harpe's  narrative,  preserved  in  MS.  in  the  Philosophical  Society's  Library.     The 
text  is,  "  Monsieur  Le  Sueur  arriva  avec  2000  quintx  de  terre  bleue  y  verte,  venaut  des 
Scioux."     The  narrative,  in  an  English  translation,  has  been  published  by  Mr.  Trench  in 
the  Louisiana  Historical  Transactions. 


Portrait   and    Signature   of   Bien 


1713.]  CROZAT'S   GRANT.  525 

dred  whites  beside,  and  twenty  negroes  held  as  slaves,  scattered  over 

the  enormous  territory  known  as  Louisiana.     So  soon  as  the 

peace  came,  the  King  granted  the  whole  territory  to  Antoine  Louisiana 

£  «     J.V  L     «    •  •  U  1  '  t0  0rOZat' 

Crozat,  one  of  those  great  financiers  who  play  so  curious  a 
part  in  the  French  history  of  those  times.  The  grant  says  specific 
ally,  that  in  consequence  of  the  war  there  had  been  no  possibility  of 
reaping  the  advantages  which  might  have  been  expected.  It  says 
also  that  Crozat's  zeal,  and  singular  knowledge  in  maritime  commerce, 
encourages  hope  for  as  good  success  as  in  his  former  enterprises, 
u  which  have  procured  great  quantities  of  gold  and  silver  to  the 
kingdom  in  such  conjunctures  as  have  rendered  them  very  accept 
able." 

In  the  grant,  the  great  rivers  are  thus  named:  "The  river  St. 
Louis,  heretofore  called  Mississippi,  the  river  St.  Philip,  heretofore 
called  Missouri,  the  river  St.  Jerome,  heretofore  called  Ouabache." 
But  these  names  have  lasted  as  little  as  the  other  special  Crozat-8gov- 
privileges  granted  to  Crozat.  The  grant  cedes  all  territo-  ernment- 
ries  watered  by  the  Mississippi.  Crozat  appointed  as  his  governor, 
La  Mothe  Cadillac,  a  soldier,  in  place  of  Le  Muys,  who  had  died  on 
his  passage  hornet  Le  Muys  had  been  the  governor-general  named  by 
the  King. 

Cadillac  arrived  at  the  colony  in  May,  1713,  bringing  the  news  of 
peace,  the  news  of  the  grant  to  Crozat,  and  of  his  own  appointment. 
With  him  came  several  officers  of  administration.  D'Iber-  Beginning  of 
ville  had  died,  but  his  influence  in  the  colony  was  inher-  ^enie  In 
ited  by  his  brother,  Bien ville,  so  long  celebrated  in  the  thecolony- 
history  of  Louisiana.  Naturally  enough  altercations  grew  up  between 
the  new  officials  and  Bienville  and  his  friends,  which  were  the  basis 
of  parties  extending  well  down  into  that  century.  In  a  colony  where 
there  were  not  a  hundred  persons  resident  at  any  one  point,  and 
at  this  time  not  more  than  four  hundred  persons  in  all,  such  alter 
cations  were,  doubtless,  all  the  more  bitter.  Crozat's  plans  were 
based  on  the  hope  of  commerce  with  the  Spaniards.  But  the  Span 
ish  government  changed  its  policy,  and  fell  back  on  a  system  of  exclu 
sion,  which  had  originated  with  Philip  II.,  and  which  generally  char 
acterized  its  rule  of  its  colonies,  until  it  brought  that  rule  to  an  end. 
Cadillac  remained  in  the  country  but  two  years.  He  made  some  per 
sonal  explorations,  and  ordered  an  expedition  into  Texas,  which 
will  be  best  described  in  our  chapter  on  the  early  history  of  that 
State. 

His  successor  was  M.  de  L'Epinay.    Bienville  was  appointed  King's 
Commandant,  while  De  L'Epinay  was  Governor-general.     There  was 


526 


THE   FRENCH  IN   THE   MISSISSIPPI  VALLEY.   [€HAP.  XXL 


no  less  dissension  between  these  two  than  between  Bienville  and 
Cadillac.  But  the  fortunes  of  the  colony  were  not  dependent  on  as 
trivial  motives  as  the  discords  of  local  commanders.  With  the  death 
of  "  Le  grand  Monarque  "  in  1715,  and  the  accession  of  the  Regent 
Duke  of  Orleans  to  the  sway  of  France,  a  new  destiny  awaited  Lou 
isiana.  It  came  through  the  spirit  which  was  given  to  emigration  by 
the  enterprise,  so  disastrous  in  Europe,  of  the  famous  John  Law, 
known  in  history  as  the  Mississippi  Scheme. 


Indians  in  a  Canoe  (fac-simile 


CHAPTER  XXII. 


John  Law. 


THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 

JOHN  LAW.  —  THE  REGENT  ORLEANS.  —  LAW'S  BANK.  —  THE  WESTERN  COMPANY. 
—  RENEWED  EMIGRATION. — THE  INDIAN  COMPANY.  —  SPANISH  WAR.  —  NEW  ES 
TABLISHMENTS.  —  FAILURE  OF  LAW'S  PLANS.  —  RUIN  OF  SPECULATORS.  —  MIS 
SIONS  IN  LOUISIANA.  —  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  ORLEANS. — ESTABLISHMENT  AT 
NATCHEZ.  —  RELATIONS  WITH  THE  INDIANS.  —  CUSTOMS  OF  THE  NATCHEZ.  —  CHO- 
PART'S  FOLLY.  —  ITS  RESULTS.  —  CAMPAIGNS  AGAINST  THE  NATCHEZ  AND  OHICKA- 

SAWS. BlENVILLE  RE-APPOINTED. HlS  ILL-SDCCESS  AS  A  MILITARY  LEADER. 

VAUDREUIL  AND  KERLEREC. 

JOHN  LAW  was  born  in  Edinburgh  in  April,  1671,  the  son  of  a  gold 
smith  of  considerable  fortune.  The  goldsmiths  of  that  day 
were  the  bankers  of  the  world,  and  all  the  social  privileges 
of  a  banker  of  to-day  belonged  to  this  Scotch  goldsmith  then.  John 
Law  was  but  fourteen  years  old  when  his  father  died.  He  was  edu 
cated  with  care,  but  did  not  choose  to  embrace  his  father's  calling, 
preferring  a  life  of  pleasure 
arid  travel.  He  left  his 
mother  at  the  age  of  twen 
ty,  and  went  first  to  Lon 
don,  where,  like  many  other 
adventurers,  he  applied  his 
knowledge  of  finance  and 
mathematics  to  the  calcula 
tions  of  the  gambling  table, 
without  more  success  than  is 
usual.  His  mother  paid  his 
debts  and  saved  his  estate. 
For  himself  he  became  pop- 
ular  in  London ;  but  the 
fortune  of  Louisiana  was 
changed,  as  it  happened,  on 
the  9th  of  April,  1694,  when 
in  a  duel  in  Bloomsbury  Square,  he  killed  on  the  spot  a  gentleman 
named  Edward  Wilson,  "  commonly  called  Beau  Wilson."  For  this 


John    Law. 


528 


THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


Ilia  career 
and  finan 
cial 
schemes. 


offence  he  was  tried,  convicted,  and  sentenced  to  death,  but  was  par 
doned  by  the  King.  He  was,  however,  thrown  into  prison  on  some 
charge  connected  with  the  duel,  but  he  effected  his  escape  and  fled  to 
the  continent. 

At  Amsterdam  he  became  a  clerk  of  the  English  Resident,  in  order 
*o  study  the  system  of  the  celebrated  Bank  of  Amsterdam  ; 
an(j  ak  thirty  years  of  age  he  returned  to  Scotland.     About 
the  year  1700,  he  presented  in  print  a  plan  for  what  we 
should  now  call  The  National  Bank  of  Scotland,  —  far  in  advance  of 

the  financial  wisdom  of  the  day, 
and,  indeed,  only  differing  from 
the  systems  now  in  use  in  the 
European  national  banks,  so  far 
as  it  included  the  system,  then 
universal,  of  monopolies  of  com 
merce  and  of  farming  out  the 
revenue.  Another  plan  of  his, 
at  this  time,  that  for  a  land  bank, 
has  been  often  brought  forward 
since,  but  never  really  tried. 

Neither  Scotland  nor  England 
was  prepared  for  his  financial 
schemes,  and,  returning  to  the 
continent,  he  engaged  himself 
in  the  not  uncongenial  occupa 
tion  of  gambling,  —  managing 
faro  banks  with  profit.  This 
occupation  brought  him  into 
acquaintance  with  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  an  acquaintance  which  afterwards  proved  so  important.  On 
the  close  of  the  war  of  the  succession  he  urged  his  financial  plans  on 
Reception  of  tne  French  government,  which  was  already  bankrupt.  But 
the  con"i?-°n  Louis  XIV.  rejected  them,  not  so  much  because  the  plans 
were  not  good,  of  which  nobody  in  France  was  a  judge,  as 
because  the  author  of  them  was  a  Protestant.  Law  went  to  offer 
them  to  Victor  Amadeo  at  Turin,  and  to  the  Emperor  of  Germany. 
Both  these  sovereigns  declined  to  try  his  experiments.  But  at  their 
courts  and  elsewhere,  he  won  two  million  livres  at  gambling,  —  and 
this  he  carried  to  Paris,  where  it  became  the  nucleus  of  his  after 
fortunes. 

Louis  XIV.  died.  His  ambition,  his  selfishness,  and  in  especial,  the 
war  of  the  succession,  had  brought  France  to  bankruptcy.  It  is  not 
fair  to  ascribe  this  bankruptcy  to  John  Law.  The  truth  is,  that  he 


The  Regent  Orleans. 


1715.] 


JOHN   LAW.  529 


postponed  for  a  few  years  the  inevitable  catastrophe.  To  borrow  the 
language  of  the  modern  exchange,  he  flew  the  great  kites,  which, 
for  a  little  while,  promised  to  carry  France  over  an  abyss.  When 
the  King  died  the  royal  stocks  were  at  a  discount  of  from  seventy  to 
eighty  per  cent.  A  treasury  report  of  September  20,  1715,  shows 
that  the  annual  expenses  were  one  hundred  and  forty-eight  million 
livres.1  All  the  receipts  of  the  year  were  pledged  in  advance,  except 
three  millions.  Seven  hundred '  and  ten  millions  of  stocks  were  due 
in  the  current  year.  The  troops  were  not  paid,  commerce  was  ruined, 
and  whole  provinces  were  depopulated.  The  Regent  was  urged  to 
proclaim  the  crown  bankrupt.  The  Regent  declared  that  he  should 
be  dishonored,  and  that  France  would  be  dishonored,  by  such  a  course. 
In  place  of  it  he  attempted  every  half  way  measure  known  in  his 
time,  or  indeed,  since,  to  insolvent  states  or  failing  merchants.  When 
it  is  remembered,  that  in  fourteen  years  the  expenses  of  the  monarchy 
had  been  two  billions  of  livres  more  than  the  revenue,  and  that  this 
amount  had  been  borrowed  ;  that  the  arrears,  when  the  King  died, 
were  seven  hundred  and  eleven  millions,  and  the  deficit  on  the  year 
then  current  was  seventy-eight  millions ;  when  it  is  also  remembered 
that  Law's  plans,  such  as  they  were,  maintained  the  credit  of  the 
crown  for  five  years ;  the  injustice  will  be  seen  of  that  sweeping 
charge,  which  says  that  the  public  bankruptcy  of  France  was  the 
consequence  of  those  schemes. 

When  the  Regent  came  into  power  he  had  placed  the  Duke  de 
Noailles  at  the  head  of  the  department  of  finance.     To  this 
department  he  referred  Law  and  his  plans.     Law  proposed  ceptance  in 
a  public  bank,  which  should  collect  the  revenues,  carry  on 
the  great  monopolies,  issue  bills  current  as  money,  and  discount  notes 
of  merchants  and  others  who  wished  to  borrow.      The  Council  of 
Finance  rejected  this  proposal,  and  Law  substituted  a  private  bank 
of  discount,  on  a  basis  which  seems  modest  to  later  times.     The  cap 
ital  was  six  million  livres,  divided  into  twelve  hundred  shares.     It 
was  authorized  to  discount  merchants'  notes,  and  to  issue  bills  re 
deemable  in  coin.     The  Duke  of  Orleans  accepted  the  title  of  Patron 
of  the  bank,  which  was  opened  in  Law's  own  house. 

So  necessary  were  these  simple  bank  facilities,  in  the  disordered 
commerce  of  France,  that  the  bank  at  once  became  popular  Higtory  of 
and  acquired  credit.     At  the  end  of  a  year  Law's  predic-  ^^K™*- 
tions  were  fulfilled,  and  he  was  able  to  take  a  second  step.     The  gov 
ernment,  also,  could  give  him  its  countenance,  by  a  decree  ordering 

1  The  value  of  a  livre  varies,  from  time  to  time,  especially  as  it  is  a  paper  livre  or  made 
of  silver.  But  the  reader  of  our  time  may  remember  to  advantage,  that,  in  1700,  the  word 
represented,  in  substance,  what  the  word  "  franc  "  stands  for  now. 

VOL.  ii.  34 


530  THE   MISSISSIPPI    SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

public  officials  to  receive  the  notes  of  the  bank,  as  if  they  were  coin. 
From  this  time,  of  course,  they  answered  all  purposes  of  exchange 
within  the  kingdom.  With  such  facilities  the  notes  instantly  gained 
value,  the  deposits  of  gold  and  silver  increased,  and  the  bank  was  on 
the  high  road  of  prosperity.  Its  notes  even  commanded  one  per  cent, 
more  than  specie,  at  times,  for  the  government  was  not  above  tam 
pering  with  specie ;  but  the  bank  redeemed  its  notes  in  the  coin  it 
received.  The  trade  of  the  country  felt  the  benefit  to  commerce  of 
such  a  currency.  Taxes  were  paid  cheerfully,  and  branches  of  the 
bank,  in  accordance  with  Law's  original  plan,  were  established  in  five 
provincial  cities. 

A  second  feature  of  Law's  great  scheme  had  been  the  management 
of  the  great  commercial  monopolies,  which  made,  at  that  time,  a  part 


N.°   l/  Cent  livrcj  Tournou 


^ 


A  $ANQUEprojnet  payer  au  Porteur  a  viie  Cent  Irvres  Tournois 
en  Efpeces  d'Argent ,  valeur  rcceue   A  Parts  le  premier  Janvier  mil 
vm?t. 

^N 

nelhn  Si&$>f  1%$%  JBwrgeois 


'^C^otxteffrTTsr  2)u#rf/T^\ 
^^^^n.aM^     ^ > 


Fac-simile  of  Bank-note  issued  by  Law. 

of  the  commercial  system  of  all  the  great  nations.  He  was  now 
tempted  to  engraft  this  part  of  that  plan  upon  his  private  bank. 
And  it  is  from  that  temptation,  and  the  plans  made  in  consequence, 
that  Law  became  the  founder  of  New  Orleans,  and,  practically,  the 
person  who  directed  the  French  settlement  of  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 
Formation  sissippi.  Crozat,  who  had  obtained  the  grant  of  the  Missis- 
"f western  sippi  trade  for  twelve  years,  had  not  been  successful  in  his 
company."  pianSi  for  reasons  which  have  been  stated.  He  asked  per 
mission  to  give  up  his  privilege,  and  Law  gladly  became  his  successor. 
It  seems  as  if  Crozat  had  attempted  commerce  only,  with  hopes  of 
success  in  mining,  while  Law,  with  a  broader  view,  expected  to  make 


1717.] 


THE   WESTERN    COMPANY. 


531 


the  colonists  at  least  support  themselves  by  agriculture.  The  con 
tract  for  the  trade  in  beaver  in  Canada  expired  in  1717.  Law,  there 
fore,  asked  permission  to  form  a  company,  which  should  unite  all  the 
commerce  of  Louisiana  with  the  fur  trade  of  Canada.  The  Regent 
granted  all  that  he  asked,  in  an  edict  issued  in  August,  1717. 

The  company  thus  formed  received  the  name  of  the  "  Western 
Company."  The  grants  made  to  it  were  for  twenty-five  years.  The 
sovereignty  over  all  Louisiana  was  granted  to  it,  on  the  condition  of 
homage  to  the  king  of  France,  and  of  a  gold  crown  at  the  beginning 
of  every  new  reign.  This  token  of  vassalage  indicates  the  nature  of 
the  hopes  with  which  it  was  undertaken.  The  capital  was  nominally 
one  hundred  million  livres.  But  subscribers  were  permitted  to  pay 
three  fourths  of  their  subscriptions  in  royal  bonds,  which  were  still  at 
the  old  discount  of  seventy  or  eighty  per  cent.  Only  one  fourth  of 
the  subscription  was  asked  for  in  coin.  It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that 
the  real  capital  paid  in  was  about  forty  million  livres. 


New  Orleans   in    1719  (from   an  old    Map) 

With  this  capital  Law  and  his  associates  went  to  work  with  spirit 
in  the  details  of  colonization.  We  can  still  refer  to  the  little 
emigration  tracts  which  they  circulated  through  France  and 
Germany  to  collect  emigrants.  Vessels  were  armed,  troops 
sent  forward,  and  colonists  enlisted.  The  great  feudal  cultivators  of 
France  did  not  encourage  the  emigration  of  peasants.  The  emigrants, 
therefore,  were  not  so  often  as  might  have  been  wished,  persons  used 
to  agriculture.  They  were  indeed  enlisted  largely  by  the 

i  e          11         •  i  -,  i  Bienville 

nope    or   collecting    gold,  —  then,    as    now,  the    hope    most  governor. 

r  The  settle- 

tempting  to  a  poor  and  discouraged  people.     M.  de  L  Ep-  mentof  New 

r  r       Orleans. 

may  was  recalled,   and   Law  showed   his   good  sense  and 
knowledge  of  the  position  by  appointing  Bienville  Governor-general  of 
Louisiana.     Bienville  was  also  instructed,  probably  by  an  echo  of  ad 
vice  given  by  himself,  to  select  a  new  site  for  the  capital.     With  the  ' 


532  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

% 
knowledge  he  had  acquired   of  the  geography  of  his  dominions,  he 

chose  the  admirable  site  of  New  Orleans,  commanding  the  approaches 
to  the  sea  by  the  river  and  by  Lake  Pontchartrain,  and  here  in  Feb 
ruary,  1718,  he  left  fifty  persons  to  clear  the  ground  and  to  build. 
Through  the  year  different  vessels  arrived  with  colonists  for  different 
landowners,  —  in  one  party  alone  eight  hundred  persons. 

The  next  year  two  of  Bienville's  brothers  arrived  with  news  of  the 
short  Spanish  war,  set  on  foot  by  the  folly  of  Alberoni.  With  great 
promptness  Governor  Bienville  moved  against  the  Spanish  port  of 
Pensacola,  and  took  it.  It  was  soon  retaken  by  a  superior  force,  but 
was  again  captured  by  a  French  squadron  in  September.  Mean 
while,  without  check  from  the  war,  John  Law  was  going  forward 
with  apparent  success  in  his  great  schemes.  The  Western  Com 
pany,  as  the  charter  called  his  corporation,  had  not  at  first  attracted 
much  public  attention.  But  its  shares  gradually  rose  to  par,  that  is, 
to  a  money  par,  though  they  had  been  largely  paid  for  in  reduced 
securities.  In  May,  1719,  he  was  strong  enough  in  public  confi 
dence  to  obtain  from  the  Regent  power  to  join  with  it  the  East  India 
Company  of  France.  The  exclusive  right  of  trading  beyond  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  was  given  to  it.  Its  name  was  changed  to 
that  of  "  The  Indian  Company,"  and,  for  its  new  purposes,  it  was 
authorized  to  issue  fifty  thousand  new  shares  at  a  par  of  five  hundred 
livres. 

But  the  company  was  already  so  prosperous  that  it  refused  even  to- 
The  Indian  issue  these  new  shares  at  less  than  five  hundred  and  twenty 
company,  liyres,  fifty  livres  down,  and  the  remainder  in  twenty  equal 
monthly  payments.  Nor  was  any  person  permitted  to  take  one  new 
share  who  did  not  exhibit  four  old  ones.  Old  shares,  therefore,  rose 
rapidly  under  the  new  enthusiasm.  This  condition  brought  them 
from  three  hundred  livres  up  to  seven  hundred  and  fifty  livres,  — 
that  is,  they  rose  from  sixty  per  cent,  of  their  nominal  value  to  fifty 
per  cent,  above  it. 

It  was  at  this  crisis,  when  the  Western  Company  became  the 
Indian  Company,  that  it  really  won  the  bad  name  which  from 
that  moment  to  this  has  hung  around  the  "  Mississippi  Scheme,"  so 
called.1  A  capital  of  forty  million  livres  was  not  an  extraordinary 
sum  with  which  to  develop  the  fur  trade  of  Canada,  and  all  the  re 
sources  of  the  Mississippi  Valley.  The  methods  of  the  Company  for 
its  legitimate  business,  even  in  the  midst  of  stockbroking  in  Paris, 
were  judicious,  though  they  were  not  so  considerable  as  its  capital 
would  have  justified.  Concessions  of  land,  as  they  were  called,  were 

1  Which  has  seemed  to  attend  subsequent  financial  transactions  which  bore  the  same- 
name. 


1719.]  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  533 

made  to  adventurers  under  the  Company,  and  these  adventurers  sent 
out  settlers,  as  the  Company  itself  did.  In  1718,  seven  ves-  Progreg,  of 
sels  were  sent  out  with  stores  and  emigrants,  numbering  in  ^te™"011- 
all,  perhaps,  fifteen  hundred  persons.  The  year  1719  sent  eleven 
ships,  besides  those  ships  of  war  belonging  to  the  crown,  which  as 
sisted  in  the  operations  against  Pensacola.  Meanwhile  new  establish 
ments  for  trade  were  opened  on  the  Red  River,  the  Missouri,  and  the 
Upper  Mississippi.1  In  this  year  five  hundred  negroes  from  the 
Guinea  Coast  were  brought  in,  and  another  cargo  arrived  the  next 
year.  A  terrible  epidemic,  contracted  at  St.  Domingo,  where  the  ves 
sels  always  stopped,  swept  through  the  emigrants  of  1720.  From 
one  vessel,  one  man,  who  was  set  on  shore  at  his  own  request,  was 
the  only  person  who  ever  arrived ;  the  ship  itself  was  never  heard 
of  again.  In  1721  nearly  a  thousand  white  emigrants  arrived,  and 
thirteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven  slaves  were  brought  from  Guinea, 
not  three  quarters  of  the  poor  wretches  who  were  embarked  for  the 
voyages.  In  this  year  the  Graronne,  belonging  to  the  Company,  with 
supplies  and  three  hundred  German  emigrants,  was  taken  by  pirates 
near  St.  Domingo. 

This  year,  however,  the  most  active  of  the  operations  of  the  Com 
pany,  as  far  as  Louisiana  was  concerned,  was  the  last  of  its  prosperity 
at  home.  The  popularity  gained  by  the  union  of  the  East  and  West 
India  Companies  in  August,  1719,  was  so  great,  and  the  demand  so 
flattering  for  the  consolidated  stock,  that  Law  was  able  to  advance 
another  step  towards  his  original  design,  and  to  undertake,  by  the 
Company,  the  payment  of  a  considerable  part  of  that  ter 
rible  public  debt,  with  which  the  Regent's  administration  sissippi 
had  found  itself  saddled  by  the  later  wars  of  Louis  the  Mag 
nificent.  In  exchange  for  the  privilege  of  collecting  the  revenue  of 
France,  he  proposed  to  take  up,  by  the  issue  of  company  stock,  gov 
ernment  stock  to  the  amount  of  more  than  fifteen  hundred  millions, 
a  considerable  part  of  which  was  approaching  maturity.  The  plan 
was  gigantic,  but  it  offered  unquestionable  advantages.  If  so  large 
an  enterprise  could  have  been  carried  out  with  the  privacy  and  deli 
cate  handling  necessary,  it  seems  to  have  rested  on  an  intelligible  and 
practicable  basis.  In  fact  the  new  shares  which  Law  issued,  of  which 
nine  tenths  were  to  be  paid  in  government  stock,  were  sought  with 
overwhelming  eagerness.  This  means,  partly,  that  the  French  people 
went  crazy.  But  it  also  means,  partly,  that  people  trusted  John  Law 
and  his  business-like  methods  of  administration  more  than  they  did 

1  In  the  Yazoo  country,  at  Baton  Rouge,  at  Bayagoula,  at  Ecores  Blancs,  at  Point  Cou- 
pee,  at  the  Black  River,  at  Pascagoula,  and  among  the  Illinois.  All  these  plantations 
proved  permanent. 


534 


THE   MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


the  Regent  Orleans  and  the  men  around  him.  For  the  real  question 
was,  whether  the  holders  of  government  securities  would  or  would  not 
exchange  them  for  his  securities,  when  they  could  do  so,  if  they  would 
add  a  payment  of  one  ninth  of  the  amount  in  cash,  for  all  which  they 
would  receive  his  bonds,  or  those  of  his  company.  The  speculators 
and  the  capitalists  of  France  alike,  chose  to  make  the  change.  And 
this  is  the  cause  of  the  frenzy,  in  which  all  France  combined  to  give, 
for  a  moment,  an  exaggerated  value  to  the  bonds  of  the  India  Com 
pany.  It  was  not  the  possession  of  the  whole  valley  of  the  Missis 
sippi.  Land  is  as  valueless  in  itself  in  any  market,  as  is  the  ocean 


A  Caricature  of  the  Time  of  tne  "  Mississippi   Bubble." 

or  the  clouds.  It  needs  the  occupancy  of  men  —  men  who  know  how 
to  subdue  the  earth  —  before  it  has  a  money  value.  If  the  Indian 
Company  could  have  given  this  element  of  value  to  their  empire  on 
the  Mississippi,  it  would  have  been  worth  the  whole  debt  of  France  a 
hundred  times  told.  But  such  inhabitancy,  or  such  a  population,  is 
not  to  be  gained  by  any  inducements  which  such  companies  can  offer. 
For  the  moment,  however,  the  public  enthusiasm  supplied  the  place 
.of  more  substantial  values.  Three  hundred  thousand  new  shares  were 
applied  for,  where  there  were  but  fifty  thousand  to  distribute.  The 
enlargement  of  currency,  accompanied  by  universal  confidence,  quick- 


\ 


1719.]  SPECULATION   AT  ITS   HEIGHT.  535 

ened  every  form  of  industry.     The   annual   taxes  were  reduced  by 
fifty-two  million  livres  in  the  year  1719,  while  thirty-five 

J  "  Momentary 

millions  had  been  taken  off  before,  since  the  Regents  acces-  effectsofthe 

plan.     Law 

sion  to  power.     The  rate  of  interest  fell,  lands  rose  in  price,  at  the  height 

of  power. 

labor  found  its  reward,  and  plenty  appeared   everywhere. 
The  author  of  such  wonders  was  hailed  as  a  demi-god ;  the  crowds  fol 
lowed  him,  the  nobility  courted  him,  the  Regent  honored  and  obeyed 
him.     To  John  Law,  the  Scotch  goldsmith's  son,  poor  France  6wed 
the  one  gleam  of  prosperity  which  she  had  enjoyed  for  twenty  years. 

It  is  said  that  in  the  three  years  of  its  power  in  Louisiana,  the 
Indian  Company  expended  twenty-five  million  of  francs.  It  would 
probably  be  impossible  to  say  what  this  immense  sum  was  expended 
for.  La  Harpe,  a  very  competent  authority,  testifies  that  eight  million 
francs  only  were  expended  on  supplies  and  transportation  for  the  col 
ony,  and  he  avers  that  this  sum  brought  no  return  to  France.  He 
says  that  convicts  and  prostitutes  were  sent  out  as  colonists  ;  that 
inexperienced  clerks  were  put  in  charge  of  the  stores  and  plundered 
them  openly  ;  that  the  Company  did  not  hold  to  its  contracts  with 
Swiss  and  German  companies,  and  with  miners  ;  that  these  contracts 
themselves  were  unfortunate  ;  that  it  was  always  making  places  for 
adventurers,  and  always  quarrelling  with  Bienville.  All  this  is  said 
more  simply,  when  we  say  that  a  company  of  directors  in  Paris  under 
took  to  rule  a  colony  in  America.  Napoleon  has  taught  us  TheCom. 
that  two  good  generals  are  worse  than  one  bad  one.  When  E^^1" 
a  directory  of  generals  is  on  one  side  of  the  world,  and  their  uma- 
army  is  on  the  other,  its  ruin  is  certain.  It  is  a  curious  question, 
whether  under  a  careful  management,  that  part  of  the  capital  of  the 
Company  which  was  subscribed  for  the  develop 
ment  of  Louisiana,  could,  in  these  days,  have 
been  made  productive.  An  annual  income  of 
four  per  cent,  would  have  satisfied  the  share 
holders.  Their  privilege  ran  for  twenty-five 
years,  and  when  it  reverted  to  the  crown,  the 
separate  holders  could  take  lands  to  represent 
the  principal.  It  is  certain  that  the  furs  of 
Canada  and  of  Louisiana  would  not  amount  to  Arms  of  the  Weste™  company. 
an  annual  value  of  one  million  six  hundred  thousand  livres.  Indeed, 
the  Company  relied,  net  so  much  on  furs,  as  on  mines  and  tobacco. 
They  never  found  any  mines  of  value,  and  the  product  of  tobacco 
was  inconsiderable.  So  far  their  empire  in  the  West  yielded  them 
but  little.  If,  however,  the  Company  had  been  willing  to  do  as 
Winthrop  and  his  associates  did,  go  themselves  with  their  charter 
to  the  province  of  which  it  made  them  masters,  it  could  not  have  been 


536  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

hard  to  make  that  province  worth  forty  millions  francs  before  1742. 
But  no  man  of  the  stockholders,  though  the  examples  were  before 
them  of  Winthrop,  of  Champlain,  of  Penn,  and  other  colonists,  had, 
at  any  moment,  any  such  idea. 

Whatever   may  have  been  the   legitimate  basis    on  which  Law's 
earlier  plans  were  founded,  all  recollection  of  it  was  swept 

Wildspecu-  i       n       i  i  r  •  <>  i 

latiouinthe  away  and  all  thought  of  any  basis  was  forgotten  in  the 
whirlwind  of  excitement  which  swept  over  France,  when  all 
men  tried  to  join  in  the  successes  of  those  whose  early  investments  in 
Indian  stocks  had  proved  fortunate  beyond  the  wildest  hope.  Under 
this  wild  excitement  shares  .issued  at  500  livres  eventually  sold  at 
5,000  livres,  and  even  more.  In  its  five  issues,  the  Company  put  out 
624,000  shares,  which  at  the  nominal  par  amounted  to  312,000,000 
livres.  To  pay  four  per  cent,  interest  on  these,  would  have  required 
12,480,000  livres  annually.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  its  income 
was  more  than  six  times  this  amount,  being  80,500,000  livres  annu 
ally.  The  Company  was  therefore  amply  able  to  make  good  its  tech 
nical  obligations.  But,  of  course,  persons  who  had  bought  for  5,000 
livres  a  share  nominally  worth  500,  would  not  be  satisfied  with  a 
miserable  annual  income  of  twenty  livres  for  that  investment.  The 
price  of  shares  was  merely  fanciful.  It  could  not  be  held  at  the  ficti 
tious  level.  And  the  moment  the  decline  began,  nothing  would  arrest 
it.  These  statements  are  due  to  the  memory  of  John  Law.  He  un 
doubtedly  made  the  grossest  errors  in  his  efforts  to  arrest  the  fall  of 
these  securities.  But  it  was,  in  the  first  instance,  not  the  audacity 
of  his  proposals,  but  their  success,  which  caused  his  ruin. 

Ruin  came.  So  soon  as  the  holders  of  shares  began  to  buy  with 
them  houses  and  castles  and  jewels,  and  did  not  buy  other 
company  *  shares,  so  soon  as  they  ceased  to  speculate  and  began  to 
invest  in  real  securities,  so  soon  the  price  of  bonds  fell.  All 
the  ingenuity  and  all  the  audacity  of  Law,  all  the  willing  help  of  the 
unscrupulous  Regent  could  not  arrest  the  fall,  more  than  they  could 
make  water  run  up  hill.  In  one  year  from  the  greatest  success  of  the 
"  system,"  as  this  rash  adventure  was  called,  it  had  wholly  disap 
peared.  In  that  time  thousands  had  become  rich  who  were  poor, 
thousands  were  poor  who  had  been  rich.  Law  fled  from  Paris,  and 
all  his  estates  were  sequestered.1  This  was  in  November,  1720. 
News  of  his  fall  and  flight  arrived  in  Louisiana  on  the  15th  of  April, 
1721.  The  year  1721,  however,  saw  the  largest  accession  yet  made 
of  emigrants  to  the  colony. 

1  For  an  admirable  account  of  all  Law's  transactions,  examined  in  the  light  of  modern 
financial  science,  such  as  it  is,  see  M.  Thiers's  chapters,  translated  into  English  with  illus 
trations,  by  Frank  S.  Fiskc. 


1721.] 


VOYAGE    OF   FATHER   CHARLEVOIX. 


531 


As  the  "  system  "  rolled  on,  adding  one  extravagance  to  another,  it 
was  announced  that  Law  had  become  a  Roman  Catholic.  Whatever 
may  have  been  the  sincerity  of  this  conversion,  it  was  followed  by  his 
appointment  as  minister  of  finance,  and  men  said  he  had  become  a 
Catholic  that  he  might  become  a  minister.  It  was  perhaps  this  con 
version  which  gave  rise  to  the  first  measures  of  the  Company  for  assist 
ing  the  religious  missions  in  Louisiana,  —  missions  to  which,  in  the  out 
set,  France  owed  even  her  knowledge  of  the  river.  Pierre  Francois 
Xavier  de  Charlevoix,  the  writer  to  whom  we  have  since  Voyageof 
owed  our  most  interesting  history  of  New  France  in  that  Charlevoix- 
century,  who  was  indeed  the  diligent  historian  of  Jesuit  enterprise 


View  on  the  Arkansas   River. 


through  the  world,  embarked  at  Rochelle,  in  July,  1720,  to  visit  the 
Canadian  Missions.  He  was  at  Kaskaskia,  in  our  State  of  Illinois,  in 
November  8,  1721.  The  brethren  of  his  order  had  already  established 
a  post  here,  six  miles  from  the  Mississippi.  He  went  from  this  point 
down  the  river  in  a  canoe  made  from  a  long  walnut  tree.  Thirty 
miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Arkansas  he  found  the  village  already 
in  ruins  where  Law  was  to  have  established,  on  his  own  concession,1 
nine  thousand  Germans  from  the  Palatinate.  All  who  came  were 
discouraged,  and  eventually  planted  what  is  now  known  as  the  "  Ger 
man  Coast "  above  New  Orleans.  No  part  of  the  world  shows  more 
beautiful  homes  and  farms  than  those  made  there  by  these  exiles  who 
were  then  thought  to  be  abandoned  to  misery.  Charlevoix  found  that 
1  The  concession  was  twelve  miles  square. 


588  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

the  small-pox  was  already  ravaging  tribes  which  La  Salle  had  found 
numerous.  He  arrived  at  Natchez,  on  the  loth  of  December,  and  at 
New  Orleans  on  the  31st.  It  is  amusing  now  to  see,  that  the  little 
circle  of  critics  in  New  Orleans  thought,  that,  if  he  had  chosen,  he 
could  have  found  his  way  to  the  Western  Ocean.1  That  enterprise 
was  reserved  to  Lewis  and  Clarke,  nearly  a  hundred  years  after,  and 
occupied  them  then  more  than  two  years.  The  Jesuit  missionary 
proved  his  own  good  sense,  and  made  good  his  Christian  profession, 
by  reconciling  Bienville  the  Governor,  and  Hubert,  one  of  the  other 
officers,  who  were  in  one  of  the  chronic  quarrels  which  embittered  life 
in  the  petty  colony. 

Charlevoix,  like  the  other  early  explorers,  sent  home  accounts  of 

the  resources  and  geography  of  the  country,  which  are  amus- 

eariy  ex-       ing  when  read  by  the  light  of  our  modern  knowledge.     We 

have  seen  that  La  Salle  proposed  to  establish  his  colony  as 

an  easy  method  by  which  the  French  could  attack  the  Spanish  silver 

mines.  La  Harpe,  one  of  the  most 
valuable  officers  who  served  under 
Bienville,  in  a  report  which  he  pre 
sented  at  home,  urged  the  necessity 
of  keeping  the  English  away  from 
these  same  silver  mines  -of  New 
Mexico.  And  in  Charlevoix's  first 
letter  describing  the  resources  of  the 
new  colony,  the  two  productions 
which  he  describes  with  most  enthu 
siasm  are  the  "  apalacchine  "  and 
the  wax  of  the  candleberry.  The 
first  of  these  is  already  wholly  for 
gotten.  It  is  the  Ilex  Cassine  of 
the  botanists,  and,  at  the  time 
Charlevoix  wrote,  had  a  reputation 
as  a  substitute  for  tea,  and  even  as 
dispelling  the  emotion  of  fear. 
iiex  Cassine  (Yaupan).  There  will  be  many,  even  among  the 

American  readers  of  these  lines,  who  have  never  heard  of  candleberry 
wax,  which  Charlevoix  supposed  was  to  be  an  important  article  of 
foreign  export.  Those  who  ever  have  made  a  candle  from  it,  will 
sympathize  with  the  "  five  or  six  slaves,"  who  being  unfit  for  ordi 
nary  duty,  were  thought  by  the  good  father  sufficient  to  gather  a 
shipload  of  wax  every  year. 

i  By  a  curious  parody  on  this  criticism,  the  biographical  dictionaries,  French  and  Eng 
lish,  say  that  Chateaubriand,  at  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  crossed  from  the  Mis 
sissippi  to  the  Pacific, — an  impossible  journey  in  the  period  of  his  tour. 


1721.]  THE  FRENCH  AND  INDIANS.  539 

The  city  of  New  Orleans,  so  named  in  honor  of  the  Regent,  was 
regularly  laid  out  on  paper  when  Charlevoix  visited  it,  —  on 

•  JUT-T.  j     r>  \t--t- 

the  convenient  plan  made  by  La  lour  and  ranger,  but  it 
was  still  a  city  on  paper.  There  were  two  hundred  people 
encamped  there,  who  were  to  carry  out  the  plans  of  the  engineers. 
To  each  applicant  a  lot  was  given  sixty  feet  in  front  by  twice  that 
depth.  Each  landholder  was  directed  to  fence  in  his  lot  and  to  leave 
a  vacant  space,  three  feet  wide,  for  open  drains  which  should  carry 
off  superficial  water.  These  ditches  were  connected,  and  a  "dyke  or 
levee  of  earth  made  on  the  river  side.  The  seat  of  government  was 
removed  thither  in  the  same  year,  and  the  names  of  the  two  hundred 
settlers  whom  Charlevoix  found  there,  are  preserved.  Bienville's  is 
first  upon  the  roll. 

The  result  in  America  of  the  work  of  the  Western  Company,  or 
the  Indian  Company,  had  been  the  establishment  of  a  few  thousand 
emigrants  in  a  climate  to  which  they  were  not  accustomed,  on  soil  of 
whose  capacities  they  were  ignorant,  with  hopes  which  could  not  be 
gratified.  A  staff  of  officials,  larger  than  would  be  appointed  now 
for  the  same  region,  though  its  population  is  counted  for  millions, 
quarrelled  among  themselves,  but  regularly  drew  their  salaries.  The 
common-sense  and  practical  intelligence  of  Bienville  were  the  most 
cheerful.  element  in  the  horoscope  of  the  infant  state. 

The  French  establishment  at  Natchez  was  the  most  flourishing  of 
the  trading  establishments  on  the  river.  The  massacre  by 

The  settle- 

the  Natchez  Indians  of  almost  all  its  male  inhabitants,  was  mentof 
the  first  terrible  event  which  broke  the  course  of  the  de 
velopment  of  the  colony,  and  the  vengeance  taken  upon  that  tribe  was 
the  first  great  effort  made  by  the  colonists  against  the  natives. 

The  policy  of  La  Salle  had  been  to  conciliate  the  natives  of  all 
tribes.  He  would  not  permit  his  men  to  fire  upon  them,  except  under 
extreme  provocation,  and  he  would  not  adopt  the  easy  policy,  which 
was  a  favorite  policy  with  the  Spaniards,  of  taking  one  side  or  an 
other  in  their  mutual  feuds.  DTberville  and  Bienville  seem  to  have 
been  willing  to  continue  in  a  policy  of  conciliation.  But,  from  the 
beginning,  it  was  the  custom  of  the  French  to  supply  the  Indians 
with  guns,  powder,  and  shot.  They  relied  on  the  Indians  of  the 
north  for  hunting,  as  the  supply  of  furs  to  Europe  made  the  largest 
element  in  their  trade,  and  they  boldly  took  the  risk  that  such  arms 
might  be  used  against  themselves. 

So  long  as  the  charge  of  the  outposts  was  entrusted  to  officers  of 
humanity  or  discretion,  this  hazardous  policy,  which  armed  the  In 
dians  as  well  as  the  whites,  brought  few  disastrous  consequences.  All 
parties  regarded  themselves  as  adventurers,  and  the  loss  of  one  life, 


540 


THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


more  or  less,  in  a  brawl  with  savages  was  not  regarded  so  seriously 
French  poi-  aS  ifc  would  have  been  in  the  earlier  settlements  of  New 
IhVSn*.  England-  As  earlJ  as  1716,  some  Indians  of  the  Natchez 
tribe,  or  allies  of  theirs,  had  killed  some  voyageurs  coming 
down  the  river.  Bienville  suspected  that  they  had  been  instigated  to 
this  atrocity  by  English  traders  from  the  Carolinas.  He  took  resolute 
measures.  He  seized  on  some  of  the  Natchez  chiefs,  and  gave  the 
tribe  to  understand  that  he  would  take  the  lives  of  these  men  if  the 
heads  of  the  murderers  were  not  sent  to  him.  After  some  intrigue 
and  wavering,  caused  partly  by  their  doubt  of  his  firmness  perhaps, 
and  partly  by  real  inability  to  meet  so  hard  an  order,  it  was  complied 
with  in  full.  From  this  moment  the  Brother  of  the  Sun,  as  the  chief 
of  the  Natchez  was  called,  must  have  felt  that  he  had  a  master.  This 
transaction  is  known  in  the  colonial  history  as  the  first  Natchez  war. 


of  the  Mississippi  at  Natchez. 


So  far  as  we  can  see,  the  Natchez  might  have  been  retained,  as  a 
useful  ally  of  the  French,  for  an  indefinite  period,  but  for  the  folly 
and  selfishness  of  one  French  commander,  named  Chopart.  The  tribe 
The  Natchez  waa  more  compactly  organized  than  most  of  the  Indian 
tribe.  tribes.  It  understood  subordination  to  its  chiefs,  and,  in 

deed,  in  many  other  regards,  showed  a  higher  civilization  than  that 
of  most  of  the  Indian  nations.  The  conjecture  has  always  seemed 
probable  that  it  was  an  off-shoot  from  that  superior  Mexican  race,  the 
civilization  of  which,  as  described  in  the  exaggerated  accounts  of  the 


1722.]  THE   NATCHEZ   INDIANS.  54 J 

companions  of  Cortez,  is  still  one  of  the  problems  and  wonders  of  his 
tory.  The  Natchez  worshipped  the  sun.  His  temple  was  of  oval 
shape,  built  of  clay,  without  windows,  and  arched  in  a  dome.  It  was 
about  one  hundred  feet  in  circumference,  and,  to  defend  it  from  the 
rain,  was  covered  with  three  layers  of  woven  mats.  Above  it  were 
three  wooden  eagles,  one  red,  one  white,  one  yellow.  No  person  was 
permitted  to  live  in  it,  but  the  Guardian  of  the  Temple  had  a  little 
shed  without,  where  he  lodged.  The  whole  was  surrounded  by  a 
palisade  on  which  were  exposed  the  skulls  which  had  been  brought 
back  from  battle.  In  this  temple  a  perpetual  fire  was  kept,  supplied 
from  time  to  time  by  the  Guardian  of  the  Temple.  It  was  his  duty 
to  feed  the  fire  with  logs,  to  see  that  they  did  not  blaze,  and  that  the 
fire  did  not  go  out. 

The  palace  of  the  great  chief,  who  took  the  name  of  the  Brother  of 
the  Sun,  was  similar  to  the  temple.     It  was  raised  on  an 
artificial  mound,  that  he  might  the  better  converse  with  his  emmentand 
brother  in  the  heavens  every  morning.     The  door  of  the 
palace  fronted  the  east,  and,  when  the  sun  arose,  his  brother  saluted 
him  with  howls,  ordered  that  his  calumet  should  be  lighted,  offered 
to  him  the  three  first  puffs  of  smoke,  and  raising  his  hands,  and 
turning  from  east  to  west,  directed  his  course  for  that  day  through 
the  heavens. 

On  the  death  of  the  supreme  chief  his  sister's  son  succeeded.  The 
princesses  of  the  blood  espoused  none  but  men  of  obscure  family,  and 
had  the  right  of  dismissing  a  husband  whenever  they  pleased.  The 
power  of  the  Brother  of  the  Sun  was  absolute;  no  man  would  refuse 
him  his  head  if  he  asked  for  it,  and  if  he  appointed  a  guard  to  wait 
upon  the  French,  none  of  these  men  were  permitted  to  receive  any 
wages.  He  had  a  sort  of  body-guard,  or  personal  staff,  appointed  even 
at  his  birth.  For,  so  soon  as  an  heir  presumptive  was  born,  a  certain 
number  of  infants  was  chosen  from  the  infants  of  the  tribe  near  his 
age,  and  these  were  assigned  for  the  service  of  the  young  prince. 
They  hunted,  fished,  planted,  and  farmed  for  him,  —  they  were  his 
servants,  and  they  furnished  his  table.  That  they  might  serve  him  in 
another  world,  they  all  sacrificed  themselves  to  follow  him,  when  he 
died.  In  a  religious  rite  of  great  solemnity  they  were  strangled  that 
they  might  go  at  once  to  be  his  servants  in  the  world  of  spirits.  All 
these  customs,  and  many  others,  described  in  the  early  writers,  are 
analogous  to  those  ascribed  in  the  Spanish  writers  to  the  Mexican 
tribes.  Charlevoix  observed  bas-relief  carvings,  "  not  so  badly  done 
as  one  expects,"  among  the  chiefs  of  a  neighboring  tribe. 

The  Natchez  were  not  disposed  to  make  war,  but  for  some  reason, 
perhaps  because  of  the  small-pox  which  their  new  friends  gave 


542  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

them,  their  numbers  diminished  rapidly  after  the  arrival  of  the 
French,  or  were  supposed  to  do  so.  It  was  thought  that  they  were 
more  numerous  in  La  Salle's  day  than  when  Iberville  landed ;  and, 
in  1722,  Charlevoix  thought  they  had  diminished  in  six  years  from 
four  thousand  to  two  thousand  fighting  men.  They  were  fond  of  the 
French,  and  the  French  found  them  very  useful.  Opposite  to  their 
town,  the  French  had  established  a  post  which  bore  the  name  of 
Rosalie,  a  name  still  preserved.  It  was  given  by  Bienville  in  compli 
ment  to  Mad.  la  Duchesse  de  Pontchartrain.  The  convenience  for 
trade,  the  excellence  of  the  soil,  and  the  beauty  of  the  situation,  which 
is  exquisite,  called  up  a  very  considerable  number  of  whites,  —  and, 
as  has  been  said,  this  was  the  most  successful  settlement  in  the  valley. 
After  the  "first  Natchez  war,"  for  nearly  ten  years  this  beautiful 
village  showed  every  sign  of  external  prosperity.  But  for  the  folly 
and  selfishness  of  Chopart,  the  commander,  this  prosperity  might  have 
continued. 

Chopart  formed  the  idea,  which  seems  almost  insane,  that  he  should 
chopart '8  l^e  ^ie  s^e  °^  *ne  great  village  of  the  Natchez  for  his  own 
madness  home,  and  that  the  fine  plain  about  it  would  be  an  admi 
rable  plantation  for  himself.  He  had  the  effrontery  to  send  for  the 
Brother  of  the  Sun,  and  to  tell  him  that  the  great  chief  of  the  French 
had  ordered  the  Natchez  to  leave  this  village,  as  he  needed  it.  The. 
chief  and  council  refused  indignantly.  They  said  that  the  nation  had 
long  possessed  this  territory,  and  that  it  was  sacred.  The  very  ashes 
of  their  fathers  were  buried  beneath  the  temple.  They  reminded  him 
that  till  now  all  the  points  occupied  by  the  French  in  their  territory 
had  been  given  in  token  of  regard,  or  had  been  bought  and  paid  for. 
Chopart  was  deaf  to  their  arguments.  He  insisted  that  in  two  months' 
time  they  must  be  ready  to  remove.  The  wily  Natchez  pretended, 
after  deliberation,  to  assent  to  his  mad  demand.  Chopart  even  made 
them  agree  to  pay  an  indemnity  in  compensation  for  the  extension  of 
time. 

In  fact,  however,  the  Natchez  agreed,  in  secret  council,  that  they 
would  by  one  fell  stroke  get  rid  of  the  French,  and  that 
pians"ofn  forever.  They  sent  messengers  to  the  other  Indian  tribes 
to  bind  them  to  the  same  work  of  destruction.  Nor  did  any 
tribe  refuse  so  far  as  to  betray  them.  The  Choctaws  joined  eagerly 
in  the  plan,  and  took,  as  their  part,  the  destruction  of  the  French  on 
the  lower  part  of  the  river.  To  make  sure  that  the  massacre  should 
take  place  on  the  same  day,  at  all  the  lower  settlements  the  Choctaw 
chief  and  the  Natchez  chief  exchanged  parcels  of  little  sticks,  in  each 
of  which  were  as  many  twigs  as  would  indicate  the  number  of  days 
before  that  appointed  for  the  butchery.  This  had  been  fixed  at  the 


1729.] 


THE   NATCHEZ   INDIANS. 


543 


time  when  Chopart  had  directed  the  abandonment  of  the  village  and 
the  temple. 

The  fatal  night  came  on  without  any  preparation  on  the  part  of  the 
French  to  oppose  the  Indians.  Women  from  the  Natchez  tribe,  more 
faithful  to  their  French  lovers,  or  to  those  who  are  so  called,  than  to 
their  race,  warned  them  of  their  danger.  Some  of  these  men  com 
municated  the  warning  to  Chopart,  but-  he  ridiculed  their  fears,  ar 
rested  them  and  put  them  in  irons.  He  had  just  returned  from  a 
visit  of  state  to  the  Brother  of  the  Sun.  The  Indians  had  well  kept 
their  horrible  secret,  all  parties  had  drunk  and  revelled  together,  and 
it  was  not  till  three  in  the  morning  that  Chopart  returned,  received 
the  report  of  danger,  ordered  the  men  to  be  ironed  who  brought  it, 
and  then  retired  to 
sleep  off  the  effects  of 
his  debauch,  warning 


Chopart  and  the  Indian  Envoys. 

the  sentinel  not  to  call  him  till  nine  in  the  morning.     This  was  on 
the  28th  of  November,  1729. 

Morning  came.     There  was  not  a  settler's  house  but  had  in  it  one 
or  more  Indians,  who  came  in  on  one  pretence  or  another. 
The  great  chief  set  out  from  his  village,  attended  by  his  terrene* 
warriors,  beating  the  drum  of  ceremony,  and  bearing  the  8 
calumet  aloft.     The  calumet,  as  La  Salle  had  seen,  may  be  a   cal 
umet  of  war   as  well  as  of  peace.     The  pretence  of  the  procession 
was  that  they  might  bring  to  Chopart  the  tribute  exacted  in  pay 
ment  for  delay.     They  reached   his  house  and  wakened  him.     He 
came  out  in  his  robe  de  chambre,  and  bade  the  cortege  enter.     They 
did  so  and  offered  their  tribute.     They  then  proceeded  to  .the  river, 
where  a  galley  just  up  from  New  Orleans  was  unloading  valuable 
stores.     Every  Indian  in  the  train  picked  out  his  man  among  those 


544  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII. 

at  work  on  the  galley,  fired,  and  killed  him.  The  discharge  was  the 
signal  agreed  upon.  All  through  the  settlement  the  Indians  closed 
on  the  French,  and  in  an  hour's  time  more  than  two  hundred l  French 
men  were  killed.  Of  the  garrison,  which  consisted  of  one  small  com 
pany,  only  one  soldier  escaped.  Most  of  the  women  and  children  were 
spared,  to  be  held  as  slaves.  But  some  of  the  women  were  killed  in 
the  effort  to  defend  their  husbands. 

Chopart  was  among  the  last  to  be  killed.  He  saw  the  slaughter, 
Death  of  but  saw  ^  ^°°  l&ke.  He  fled  to  his  garden,  not  so  much  as 
ohopart.  seizing  a  gun.  He  whistled  for  his  soldiers,  —  but,  they 
were  not  left  to  hear.  He  was  surrounded  by  Indians.  But  no 
Natchez  would  lay  hands  on  him.  He  was  a  dog,  they  said,  unworthy 
to  be  killed  by  a  brave.  'A  Puant  chief  was  called,  who  killed  him 
with  a  club.2 

Had  the  simple  arithmetic  of  the  Natchez  and  Choctaws  proved  as 
accurate  as  they  expected,  that  day  would  probably  have  been  the  last 
of  the  whole  colony.  But  if,  in  the  best  calculations  of  the  greatest, 
a  little  dog  may  do  more  mischief  than  he  can  conceive,  —  what  must 
not  be  expected  in  the  computations  of  ignorant  savages  ?  It  hap 
pened  that  one  day  when  the  Natchez  chief  burned  his  fatal  stick  in 
the  temple,  his  little  son  stood  by.  While  the  father's  attention  was 
engaged  elsewhere,  the  boy,  with  a  child's  passion  for  imitation,  burned 
two  sticks,  as  he  had  seen  his  father  burn  one,  without  being  observed. 
In  consequence  of  this  accident,  the  Natchez  pounced  upon  their  prey 
two  days  earlier  than  the  day  fixed  upon  in  their  solemn  treaty. 

With  all  the  facilities  of  modern  skill,  the  traveller  is  a  long  day  in 
descending  the  Mississippi,  even  on  the  flood,  from  Natchez  to  New 
Orleans.  The  distance,  in  a  direct  line,  is  more  than  a  hundred  miles, 
and,  by  the  winding  of  the  river,  it  is  twice  as  far.  The  poor  fugi 
tives  from  Natchez  had  no  means  of  carrying  the  intelligence  of  the 
massacre  to  New  Orleans  in  the  fatal  two  days  which  were  left  to  that 
post.  When,  therefore,  on  the  appointed  day,  the  first  of  December, . 
six  hundred  of  the  Choctaws  assembled  in  force  by  the  Lake  of  St. 
Louis,  Perier,  the  governor,  had  no  notice  of  what  had  taken  place 
above.  The  Choctaws  sent  to  him  a  delegation,  saying  that  they  had 
come  to  present  to  him  the  calumet.  Perier  was  alive  to  the  advan 
tage  of  conciliating  this  important  tribe ;  but  he  was  too  good  a  sol 
dier  to  admit  them  inside  his  fortifications.  He  sent  a  civil  message, 
that  he  would  gladly  receive  the  chief  with  thirty  of  his  warriors. 
This  answer  disconcerted  the  Choctaws,  and  seems  to  have  been  enough 

1  This  number  corresponds  best  with  what  we  know  of  the  colony.     But  Dumont  says 
seven  hundred. 

2  The  Puants  were  Indians  from  Green  Bay,  now  in  Wisconsin. 


1729.] 


T.HE  EXPEDITION  AGAINST   THE   NATCHEZ. 


545 


to  avert  an  immediate  attack.  They  sent  a  delegation  to  the  Natchez 
to  present  the  calumet  to  the  great  chief.  The  delegation  was  not 
received  with  such  honor  as  was  expected.  They  soon  learned  that 
the  Natchez  had  made  their  attack  two  days  before  that  agreed  upon. 
What  was  worse,  perhaps,  in  the  presents  which  they  received,  from 
the  plunder  then  taken  by  "  the  Brother  of  the  Sun,"  there  were  no 
guns,  powder,  or  balls.  The  Choctaws  were  indignant  at  all  this,  and 
turned  their  rage  against  the  Natchez.  They  accused  them  of  selfishly 
anticipating  the  assault,  that  they  might  gain  all  the  benefits.  They 
forbade  them  to  kill  any  of  their  captives,  lest  they  should  have  to 
account  for  such  lost  lives  to  the  Choctaws. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  third  of  December,  fugitives  who  had  escaped 
the  slaughter,  arrived  at  New  Orleans.     Perier  acted  with 

The  news 

promptness.     He  sent  an  officer  to  communicate  with  the  »*  New  or- 
Choctaws,  and,  before  long,  had  succeeded  in  engaging  these 
fickle  savages  on  his  side.     He  formed  a  little  army,  and,  with  his 
new  allies,  moved 
against    the   Nat 
chez.     The   nego 
tiations  and  prepa 
rations    consumed 
the  months  of  De 
cember  and  Janu 
ary,  but,  in  Feb 
ruary,    the    Choc 
taws    arrived     at 
Natchez,     sixteen 
hundred    in   num 
ber.    The  French 
contingent    joined 
them    in    March, 
and  the  fort  of  the 
Natchez   was    in 
vested.     They  did 
not  stand  a  siege 
in   which    cannon 
were  to  be  served  against  their  palisades.     They  agreed  to  surren 
der  their  prisoners  and  to  make  peace  on  those  terms.     Loubois,  the 
French   commander,  on  the   spot,  acceded   to  these    terms,  without 
meaning  to  keep  them,  having  a  theory  that  he  was  not  bound  to 
keep  faith  with  them,  more  than  they  would  with  him.     The  next 
morning,  therefore,  after  he  had  received  the  prisoners,  he  prepared 
to  renew  the  siege.     But  he  found  that  the  Natchez  did  not  trust  him 

VOL.  ii.  35 


Costumes  of  French  Soldiery  early  in  the  Eighteenth  Century. 


540  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  .  [CHAI-.  XXII. 

any  more  than  he  deserved,  and  that  they  had  abandoned  their 
town. 

The  main  body  of  the  tribe  kept  together,  and,  after  one  or  two 
efforts  to  surprise  the  fort  at  Natchez,  moved  up  the  Red  River,  and 
made  an  attempt  on  that  at  Natehitoches.  But  St.  Denis,  the  com 
mander,  was  too  watchful  for  them.  The  same  summer,  Perier,  find 
ing  himself  reinforced  by  three  companies  of  marines  from  France, 
made  a  final  movement  up  the  river.  He  found  the  Natchez  in  their 
last  retreat,  attacked  them  and  compelled  them  to  surrender.  In 
truth,  two  hundred  of  them,  of  whom  most  were  women,  were  taken 
prisoners,  and  were  sold  as  slaves  to  the  plantations  at  St.  Domingo. 
Three  hundred  escaped,  and  found  asylum  among  the  tribes  which 
hated  the  French.  At  this  day,  among  the  Creek  Indians,  who  now 
cultivate  the  fertile  lands  reserved  to  that  tribe  in  the  upper  valleys 
of  the  Washita  River,  there  are  three  hundred  or  more  good  citizens 
who  speak  the  Natchez  language,  and  trace  their  descent  back  to  the 
vassals  of  the  "  Brother  of  the  Sun."  1 

The  poor  Natchez,  however,  in  their  untimely  insurrection,  achieved 
more  than  they  knew.  For  when  the  news  of  the  destruction  of  the 
only  promising  post  on  the  river  reached  Paris,  the  Western  Com 
pany,  quite  discouraged,  represented  to  the  king  their  loss,  and  returned 
to  him  their  unprofitable  right  in  the  colony.  The  king,  very  wisely, 
appointed  Bienville  its  governor  again,  in  the  place  of  Perier,  and 
Bienville's  last  administration  began.  He  arrived  at  New  Orleans  in 
1734  ;  Perier,  who  had  been  promoted  to  be  lieutenant-general,  resigned 
the  government  and  returned  to  Europe. 

The  surrender  by  the  Western  Company  marks  the  miserable  fail- 
Failure  of  ure  °f  the  °ld  system  of  giving  the  business  of  colonization 
compass0  over  i*1*0  *ne  oversight  of  favored  boards  of  men  who  did  not 
system.  mean  to  emigrate.  After  thirty  years  of  nursing,  after  all 
the  energy  of  Law's  movements,  and  the  large  sums  of  money  which 
had  been  expended  on  the  colony,  its  population,  when  it  was  returned 
to  the  king,  was  estimated  at  only  five  thousand.  Of  these,  nearly 
two  thousand  were  negroes.  The  whole  number  was  scattered  among 
eleven  posts.  Fourteen  years  later,  a  careful  census  showed  even  a 
smaller  number,  —  so  that  this  estimate  of  five  thousand,  even,  was 
probably  exaggerated.  In  1745,  there  were  but  seventeen  hundred 
white  men,  fifteen  hundred  women,  and  two  thousand  and  twenty 
slaves,  of  whom  the  Illinois  had  about  three  hundred  white  men,  the 
Missouri  posts  two  hundred,  and  Natchez,  which  had  been  the  most 
attractive  settlement  of  all,  only  eight  white  men  and  fifteen  negro 
slaves.  It  must  be  remembered,  therefore,  that  we  are  still  tracing 
1  See  Gallatin's  Synopsis,  Arch.  Am.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  114. 


1736.] 


BIENVILLE'S   EXPEDITION. 


547 


chronicles  which  derive  their  interest  only  from  the  results  which  were 
to  grow  from  petty  beginnings,  and  not  from  the  numbers  engaged, 
or,  indeed,  even  from  the  personal  characteristics  of  most  of  the 
actors. 

Bienville  probably  wished  to  show,  that  if  he  had  been  commander, 
the  savages  would  not  have  come  off  so  well  as  they  did  Bienville>8 
under  Perier's  administration.     He  demanded  of  the  Chick-  ag-lif^tthe 
asaws  that  they  should  surrender  the  Natchez.     The  Chick-  Chlcka8aws 
asaws  had  by  this  time  cemented  alliances  with  the  English  of  Caro 
lina,  —  they  were  confident  of  their  own  power,  —  and  they  sent  back 
word  to  Bienville  that  the  Natchez  and  they  now  formed  one  nation, 
and  that  they  should  not  comply  with  his  demand.     Bienville  then 
determined  to  attack  the  Chickasa'ws.     He  sent  orders  to  D'Artag- 
nette,  who  commanded  the  fort  at  Kaskaskia,  among  the  Illinois,  to 


Bienville's  Army  on  the  River. 

meet  him  in  person  on  the  10th  of  May,  1736,  in  the  Chickasaw 
country,  with  the  largest  army  he  could  muster  from  Illinois  Indians, 
French  troops,  and  settlers.  Bienville  himself  proposed  to  lead  an 
army  from  New  Orleans  and  Mobile.  The  expedition  thus  set  in 
motion  was  by  far  the  most  formidable  which  the  little  colony  ever 
attempted.  Bienville's  contingent  made  its  rendezvous  at  Mobile. 
On  Easter  Day,  the  1st  of  April,  it  moved"  up  the  Mobile  River  in 
a  fleet  of  thirty  piraguas  and  as  many  batteaux.  On  the  20th  he 
reached  a  point  which  he  called  Tombecbe,  —  which  is  the  Jones's 
Bluff  of  the  Little  Tombigbee  River  of  the  Alabama  geography  of 
to-day.  Hither  he  had  sent  an  advance  guard,  the  year  before,  to 


548  THE  MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME.  [CHAP.  XXII 

build  a  fort.  The  Choctaws  met  him  there  with  the  calumet,  and 
received  the  tribute,  for  so  they  began  to  regard  it,  —  in  considera 
tion  of  which  they  served  as  auxiliaries.  On  the  4th  of  May,  the 
Hisexpe-  army,  thus  reinforced,  reem  barked  and  proceeded  slowly  up 
the  river,  and,  on  the  24th  disembarked  for  the  last  time, 
and  then  began  the  construction  of  a  palisade  and  shed  for  the  pro 
tection  of  its  stores. 

The  enemy  was  in  a  stockade  fort,  seven  miles  distant,  built  upon 
a  hill,  surrounded  by  the  cabins  of  an  Indian  village.  The  fort  was 
built  of  heavy  timbers  a  foot  in  diameter :  it  was  circular  in  shape, 
with  three  rows  of  loop  holes.  The  Chickasaws  were  .not  only  pro 
tected  by  the  logs,  but  stood  in  pits  or  trenches  which  covered  all  but 
the  upper  parts  of  their  bodies.  They  kept  silence,  and  let  the  French 
come  within  good  musket  shot  before  they  fired.  As  the  French  ap 
proached  they  saw  Englishmen  whom  they  supposed  to  be  allies  of 
the  Chickasaws.  The  stockade  proved  to  be  quite  too  strong  to  be 
taken  by  storm,  as  Bienville  had  proposed.  After  a  loss  of  nearly 
one  hundred  and  twenty,  very  severe  for  so  small  a  force,  he  was 
obliged  to  withdraw  his  men,  without  producing  the  least  effect  on  the 
enemy.1  He  spent  the  night  in  his  camp,  but  on  the  next  day  he  had 
the  grief  of  seeing  that  his  men,  who  had  been  left  dead  on  the  field, 
had  been  cut  to  pieces  by  the  Chickasaws,  who  had  exposed  the  quar 
tered  bodies  on  the  palisades  in  derision.  A  rumor  was  spread  that 
The  French  D'Artagnette,  with  the  Illinois  contingent,  was  approach- 
repulsed.  'ng  gut  Bienviue  }ia(j  no  sucn  good  fortune.  He  returned 
to  his  camp  on  the  Tombigbee,  not  much  molested  on  his  retreat. 
His  attack  was  made  on  the  2Gth  of  May. 

Poor  D'Artagnette  had,  in  fact,  with  military  precision,  arrived  in 
time  to  make  the  junction  contemplated  in  his  orders.  He  reached 
the  Chickasaw  country  on  the  9th  of  May,  and  waited  within  sight 
of  the  enemy  till  the  20th,  but  heard  no  news  of  Bienville.  His 
Indians  murmured,  and  wished  either  to  retreat  or  attack.  D'Artag 
nette  chose  to  attack,  —  and  did  so  successfully,  — 'but  while  driving 
the  Chickasaws  from  a  second  village  he  was  himself  wounded.  His 
Indians  abandoned  him,  — but  a  loyal  company  of  forty-eight  French 
men  held  by  him.  This  force  was  so  small,  that  he  was  compelled  to 
surrender,  and  he  and  they  were  prisoners  of  the  Chickasaws  at  the 
time  when  Bienville  made  his  rash  and  unsuccessful  attack.  The 
whole  Illinois  detachment  had  been  396  men,  of  whom  130  were 
Fate  of  the  French,  38  Iroquois,  38  Arkansas,  and  190  Illinois  and  Mi- 
pnsoners.  amis.  So  soon  as  Bienville  retreated,  the  savages  took  their 
French  prisoners  to  a  plain,  tied  all  but  one  of  them  to  stakes  and 

1  This  estimate  of  the  loss  is  that  of  Du  Tortre  in  a  despatch  sent  to  Paris.     Dumont's 
account  says  the  French  loss  was  thirty -two  killed,  and  at  least  sixty  wounded. 


1740.J  A   SECOND   EXPEDITION.  549 

burned  them  to  death  by  a  slow  fire.  The  whole  expedition  was  a 
wretched  failure,  of  which  the  blame  seems  to  rest  with  Bienville. 
The  Chickasaws  never  lost  the  prestige  which  their  success  gave  them. 
The  historian  of  Alabama  says  of  them  :  "  The  Chickasaws  have  never 
been  conquered."  1 

In  1740  Bienville  led  another  expedition  against  them  by  way  of  the 
Mississippi  river.  He  moved  with  thirty-six  hundred  men,  —  of  whom 
one  third  were  whites  and  the  rest  negroes  and  Indians, — from  Fort 
Assumption,  which  stood  near  the  site  of  our  city  of  Memphis.  This 
was  the  largest  army  which  the  colony  had  ever  put  in  the  field.  The 
unconquered  Chickasaws  were  frightened,  and  offered  to  make  peace 
on  condition  of  surrendering  all  their  white  slaves.  Bienville  assented. 
He  received  from  them  two  English  prisoners,  satisfied  himself  that 
they  had  no  French  in  their  hands,  and  with  this  concession,  withdrew 
his  expedition.  The  Chickasaws  pretended,  and  the  French  believed 
what  was  probably  true,  that  the  Natchez  had,  for  the  time,  so  far 
withdrawn  from  their  confederacy,  that  a  war  against  the  former  tribe 
did  not  serve  the  purpose  of  vengeance  against  the  latter.  The  two 
campaigns  certainly  did  not  add  to  the  reputation  of  Bienville  as  a 
military  leader.  But  he  retains  the  reputation  of  a  successful  admin 
istrator  of  a  colony,  who  had  to  act  often  on  his  own  responsibility, 
who  was  always  separated  from  his  metropolitan  masters  by  an  ocean 
of  slow  navigation,  and  often  by  the  frequent  wars.  He  dismissed  his 
auxiliaries  with  presents.  Fort  Assumption  was  razed,  and  no  new 
military  works  were  erected  on  its  site  for  one  hundred  and  twenty 
years.  After  an  absence  of  more  than  ten  months  the  army  returned 
to  New  Orleans.  Bienville  himself  returned  to  France  the  next  year, 
and  was  succeeded  by  the  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil.  Bienville  never  re 
turned  to  America.  He  died  in  1767. 

In  truth  Louisiana  had  succeeded  as  a  royal  colony  no  better  than 
it  succeeded  under  the  Western  Company.  Its  officers  and  garrisons 
in  Bienville's  time  entailed  on  the  Crown  an  annual  expense  of  five 
hundred  thousand  livres,  —  not  a  very  large  sum  in  current  money, 
but  not  inconsiderable  in  the  pinched  finances  of  the  latter  part  of  the 
reign  of  Louis  XV.  If  the  figures  could  be  relied  on,  with  which  the 
Western  Company  gave  back  their  charter  to  the  King  in  June,  1731, 
its  population  was  then  five  thousand  on  the  Mississippi 
and  all  its  affluents,  beside  two  thousand  slaves.  A  census  campaign  of 
taken  fifteen  years  later  showed  a  population  of  only  four 
thousand  whites,  of  whom  eight  hundred  were  the  troops  in  the  gar 
risons.  These  figures  would  show  even  a  decrease  in  the  years  of  the 
Royal  administration.  Twenty  years  later,  under  the  careful  admin- 

1  Pickett's  Alabama. 


550 


THE   MISSISSIPPI   SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


, 


Louis  XV. 


.istration  of  Ulloa,  a  census  showed  a  population  of   5,526  whites,  and 
about  as  many  blacks.     It  was  not  unnatural  that  Louis  XV.  should 

care  but  little  for  his  namesake, 
which,  after  half  a  century  of 
nursing,  had  shown  such  incon 
siderable  growth,  and  gave  so 
little  visible  promise  of  im 
provement.  An  army  of  eight 
hundred  men  to  protect  four 
times  their  number  of  settlers 
gave  indeed  but  little  hope  for 
any  permanent  establishment  of 
value. 

The  Marquis  de  Vaudreuil  was 
appointed  Bienville's  successor, 
and  he  filled  the  post  of  Royal 
Governor  at  New  Orleans  for 
eight  years,  whence  he  was 
transferred  to  Canada.  He 
was  in  fear  that  the  English 
would  atta-ck  him  by  sea,  as 
through  the  Choctaw  allies  of  the  Carolinians  and  Georgians  they 
threatened  him  by  land.  Under  more  vigorous  lead  the  English  would 
have  done  so.  But  no  English  fleet  attempted  to  force  his  petty  for 
tifications.  By  land,  his  people  were,  again  and  again,  in  terror  of 
attack  from  the  Choctaws  of  the  English  party.  At  one  time  Vaud 
reuil  was  inspecting  his  post  at  Mobile,  so  that  the  colony  at  New 
Orleans  was  without  its  chief.  On  the  German  Coast  so  called,  on 
vaudreuii's  the  river,  and  indeed  close  to  the  little  city,  the  Choctaws 
wTthtoe  killed  one  and  another  Frenchman.  Vaudreuil  returned  to 
Choctaws.  gnci  tjje  city  m  dismay.  He  sent  out  detachments  of  re 
gulars,  militia,  and  friendly  Indians,  on  every  side.  His  strategy  was 
successful,  and  was  rewarded  by  the  capture  of  the  whole  Choctaw 
army,  excepting  two  men.  The  others,  —  only  eleven  in  number,  — 
were  brought  prisoners  to  the  city,  and  the  Marquis's  satisfaction  for 
such  a  victory  was  of  course  chastened  by  his  mortification  for  the 
terror  of  his  subordinates. 

In  1750  that  part  of  the  Choctaws  who  were  attached  to  the  French 
interest  obtained  a  series  of  crushing  victories  over  the  smaller  party 
who  were  in  the  English  interest,  and,  by  what  was  known  as  the 
Grand  Pre"  Treaty,  extorted  such  hard  terms  as  to  secure  for  a  time 
peace  from  their  most  dreaded  enemy.  The  Chickasaws  offered 
peace  also.  But  Vaudreuil  wrote  to  his  government  that  he  did 


1752.]  PRODUCTIONS    OF   THE    COLONY.  551 

not  want  to  make  a  treaty  with  them  till   he  had  conquered  them. 
In  this  desire,  he  was  never  gratified. 

In  1751,  so  great  was  Vandreuil's  consideration  at  Court,  and  so 
desirous  was  the  Court  to  maintain  Louisiana  against  the  English,  that 
he  had  under  his  orders  two  thousand  soldiers,  —  a  force  more  than 
one  third  of  the  whole  white  population  of  that  immense  region. 
With  such  a  force  the  expenses  of  the  colony  of  course  increased  also, 
and  in  the  last  year  of  his  administration  they  were  930,767  livres. 
On  the  9th  of  February,  1753,  he  gave  up  his  place  to  Capt.  Kerlerec 
of  the  Navy,  and  took  the  command  of  Canada.  The  petty  victory 
over  the  Choctaws  which  we  have  mentioned,  a  series  of 
anxious  discussions  about  the  paper  currency  of  a  handful  tion  of  Keri- 
of  traders,  and  the  well  sustained  memoirs  in  which  a  large  dictions  of 
staff  of  officers  explain  how  the  river  should  and  how  it 
should  not  be  defended,  make  up  the  voluminous  annals  of  the  col 
ony  during  his  administration.  Meanwhile  that  conquest  of  the  soil 
and  climate  made  progress  which  is  so  seldom  recorded  in  history, 
but  on  which  all  history  of  course  depends.  That  commerce  in  the 
wax  of  the  candleberry  to  which  Charlevoix  had  called  attention, 
still  attracted  interest.  One  year  the  king  bade  Vaudreuil  pur 
chase  the  whole  crop  on  his  account  at  the  rate  of  ten  or  twelve 
livres  a  pound.  A  dispatch  of  a  later  year  says  that  one  planter 
raised  six  thousand  pounds  of  the  wax,  a  handsome  crop  for  those 
days  at  the  rate  named.  The  report  says  that  this  is  the  only  lu 
minary  used  by  the  inhabitants.  Another  report  of  the  year  1752 l 
speaks  of  the  difficulties  of  the  cotton  culture,  resulting  from  the 
amount  of  labor  necessary  to  separate  seed  from  fibre,  and  alludes 
to  a  gin  which  M.  Dubreuil,  the  same  planter  who  had  succeeded  best 
with  the  wax,  had  invented  for  that  purpose.  This  unsuccessful  gin 
antedates  Eli  Whitney's  by  forty-one  years.  The  manufacture  of 
sugar,  sufficient  for  the  needs  of  the  few  colonists,  was  introduced,  but 
afterwards  declined.  Indigo  was  cultivated,  and  eventually  became 
an  article  of  export.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  while  the  expenses 
of  the  crown  doubled  in  the  period  of  Vaudreuil's  stewardship,  the 
real  prosperity  and  wealth  of  the  planters  were  increasing  in  a  larger 
proportion.  Full  memoirs  preserved  in  the  French  Archives  show 
that  intelligent  men,  even  then,  foresaw  in  a  small  degree  some  part  of 
the  immense  value  which  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  had  in  store  for 
the  world.  It  is  interesting  to  see  that  at  a  period  of  scarcity  in  New 
Orleans  the  Illinois  farms  were  already  productive  enough  to  supply 
the  distant  seaport  with  bread-stuffs.  The  culture  of  silk  and  tobacco 

1  No.  241.     Portfolio  No.  v.     Archives  de  la  Marine,  Sept.  22,  1752.     M.  Michel  to  the 
minister. 


652 


THE   MISSISSIPPI    SCHEME. 


[CHAP.  XXII. 


is  eagerly  recommended,  and  the  development  of  the  mines  of  copper 
and  lead  in  the  northwest,  the  existence  of  which  was  perfectly  well 
known  to  the  officers  of  the  crown. 

The  administration  of  Kerlerec,  as  governor,  covered  ten  years.  At 
the  end  of  that  time  he  was  recalled  to  France,  and  thrown  into  the 
Bastile.  He  was  a  captain  in  the  French  navy,  who  had  distinguished 
himself  in  battle.  But  in  the  colony  he  was  constantly  quarrelling 
with  Rochemore,  the  intendant  of  commerce,  and  his  arrest  was  caused 
by  charges  of  mal-appropriation  of  ten  millions  of  livres  in  four  years 
under  the  pretence  of  preparation  of  war.  He  held  office  during  the 
most  of  the  French  war  of  George  II.'s  reign,  and  for  long  periods 
of  that  time  was  left  without  any  direct  dispatches  from  France  ;  for 
the  English  cruisers,  who  never  attacked  him  directly,  were  successful 
in  cutting  off  all  his  communications.  Kerlerec's  administration  began 
with  high  hopes  of  conciliating  the  Choctaws.  But  he  soon  lost  con 
fidence  in  them,  ancl  his  reports  home,  regarding  the  under  officers  of 
the  crown,  and  indeed  most  of  the  people,  with  whom  he  had  to 
do,  were  anything  but  flattering.  The  army  itself  was  recruited  from 
such  worthless  material  as  to  give  Kerlerec  quite  as  much  trouble 
as  the  savages  whom  it  was  to  keep  in  order. 


Coins  struck  in  France  for  the  Colonies. 


The  Old   Fort  at  Saint  Augustine 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 

SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 

SPANISH  FOOTHOLD  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES.  —  SUCCESSIVE  ACQUISITIONS  BY  THE 
UNITED  STATUS.  —  THE  FORTUNES  OF  FLORIDA.  —  BOKDER  WARS  WITH  CAROLINA 
AND  GEORGIA.  —  OGLETHORPE'S  EXPEDITIONS.  —  FLORIDA  CEDED  TO  ENGLAND. — 
ITS  POPULATION.  —  DISCOVERY  OF  CALIFORNIA.  —  ORIGIN  OF  THE  NAME.  — 
ROMANCE  OF  ESPLANDIAN.  —  FATHER  NICA'S  PRETENDED  DISCOVERIES.  —  CORO- 
NADO'S  EXPLORATION  IN  ARIZONA  AND  NEW  MEXICO.  —  DRAKE  IN  CALIFORNIA. — 
His  RECEPTION  BY  THE  INDIANS.  —  LOCALITIES  OF  HIS  DISCOVERIES. 

THE  destiny  of  the  United  States  Las  passed  so  far  under  the  em 
pire  of  institutions  which  have  an  English  origin,  that  it  is  easy  to 
forget  how  large  a  portion  of  her  territory  has  in  other  times  be 
longed  to  the  Spanish  crown.  The  prevalence  of  the  English  lan 
guage  as  the  language  of  public  procedure  in  every  State  and  Territory, 
and  the  sway,  in  a  very  large  degree,  of  English  law  and  the  habits 
of  English  administration,  are  enough  to  keep  out  of  view  the  fact, 
that,  at  one  time  or  another,  more  than  half  the  present  Extent  of 
territory  of  the  United  States  has  been,  on  the  map  at  least,  dominion  in 
subject  to  the  King  of  Spain.  The  Spanish  claim  to  Mex-  America. 
ico  and  the  regions  north  of  it,  was  pressed  indefinitely  northward. 
Somewhere  on  the  coast  of  what  we  call  Oregon,  Drake  saw  the 
shore  in  1579,  and  he  took  possession  of  the  country  in  California  for 


b64  SPANISH   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XX1IT. 

the  English  crown  as  New  Albion.  But  England  scarcely  asserted 
her  rights  under  this  discovery  for  centuries. 

At  one  and  another  time  since  she  seized  the  port  of  Astoria  in 
1813,  she  has  made  one  and  another  claim  to  this  territory,  running 
back  to  her  rights  under  Drake's  discovery.  But  the  decision  which 
gave  to  the  United  States,  holding  under  the  Spanish  claim,  the 
region  south  of  the  line  of  49°  north  latitude,  states,  quite  correctly, 
the  average  opinion  of  the  older  geographers.1  On  the  seacoast  of 
The  Pacific  the  Pacific  the  Spanish  claim  resulted  from  a  series  of  dis 
coveries  and  explorations,  beginning,  as  will  be  seen,  when 
Hernando  Cortez  discovered  California  in  1536.  In  the'  interior  the 
eagerness  for  silver  early  established  colonies  of  which  Santa  Fe  in 
New  Mexico  was  the  most  important  of  those  far  to  the  northward. 
It  is  generally  supposed,  that  the  droves  of  wild  horses  now  found 
through  the  whole  of  Western  America,  as  far  north  as  the  climate 
will  permit,  were  of  Spanish  origin.  So  far  as  the  natives  received 
any  supplies  from  the  workshops  of  civilization,  it  was  from  Spanish 
traders ;  and,  to  this  hour,  some  fragments  of  the  Spanish  language, 
acquired  at  a  very  early  period,  will  be  found  in  their  dialect. 

Eastward  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  the  Spaniards  showed  no  dispo- 
spamshpoi-  sition  to  extend  their  dominion,  after  the  expeditions  of  De 
the  a'ocky  Soto  and  Ponce  de  Leon  had  seemed  to  prove  that  no  treas- 
Mountams.  ure  Q£  g^  Qr  8j]ver  was  to  be  found  there.  The  Spanish 

government  made  no  protest  when,  under  Louis  XIV.,  the  French 
claimed  a  right  to  the  whole  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  founded  upon 
the  discoveries  of  Joliet,  Marquette,  and  La  Salle.  On  the  ground, 
an  irritable  commander  of  a  Spanish  post  in  Texas  might  quarrel 
with  an  impetuous  French  officer  in  a  garrison  on  the  Red  River. 
But  at  home  the  policy  of  Spain  was  well  defined ;  and  if  the  King 
of  France  were  willing  to  keep  a  line  of  defence  between  the  English 
colonies  and  the  Spanish  mines,  the  King  of  Spain  made  no  objec 
tion.  It  was  not  until  the  treaty  of  Paris,  in  1763,  that  the  King 
of  France  showed  that  he  was  tired  of  this  expensive  good-nature. 
He  then  gave  this  immense  territory  to  his  well-beloved  brother  of 
Spain,  who  showed  himself,  indeed,  somewhat  coy  about  receiving 
the  magnificent  but  costly  present.  Twenty  years  afterward,  the 
Spanish  crown  gave  it  back  to  France,  only  to  learn,  in  a  few  months, 
that  France  had  sold  it  to  the  young  Republic  of  America. 

Florida,  from  which  so  much  was  hoped  in  the  days  of  Ponce  de 
Leon,  had  remained  in  the  possession  of  Spain,  after  the  cruel  mas- 

1  This  claim  was  reinforced  by  Gray's  discovery  of  the  Columbia  River,  and  Lewis  & 
Clarke's  explorntion  of  it.  These  discoveries  gave  to  the  United  States  precisely  the  same 
sort  of  rijrht  ns  that  which  La  Salle's  «:ave  to  France,  for  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi. 


1819.]  FLORIDA.  555 

sacres  which  have  been  already  described.1  But  no  discoverer  had 
found  gold,  or  silver,  or  the  fountain  of  life  in  Florida. 
The  Spanish  posts,  therefore,  were  simply  military  positions,  iards  in 
held  to  insure  the  command  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  On  the 
eastern  side  St.  Augustine,  without  trade,  and  with  but  a  small  civil 
population,  was  held  by  Spain  until  1762,  when  it  was  ceded  to  Eng 
land,  to  be  restored  in  1783.  By  Spain  it  was  ceded  to  the  United 
States  in  1819.  On  the  other  side,  Pensacola,  as  has  been  seen,  once 
and  again  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  French.  Afterwards,  with  East 
ern  Florida,  it  fell  to  the  English.  But  no  settlement  of  Florida 
followed  from  either  of  these  establishments.  The  territories,  nomi 
nally  Spanish,  thus  added  to  those  which  were  colonized  under  the 
flag  and  protection  of  England,  or  under  titles  derived  from  her, 
cover  rather  more  than  half  of  the  superficial  area  of  the  United 
States,  with  the  exception  of  the  province  of  Alaska,  recently  pur 
chased  from  Russia.  Of  the  several  parts  of  this  immense  domain, 
the  earliest  to  come  under  the  dominion  of  the  United  States,  was 
the  western  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  which  was  that 
which  came  latest  under  the  Spanish  flag.  In  1819  the  United 
States  acquired  Florida  from  Spain,  and  all  her  rights  on  the  west 
ern  shore  of  the  continent  north  of  42°  north  latitude,  comprising 
the  State  now  known  as  Oregon,  and  Washington  Territory.  In 
1845,  by  a  joint  resolution,  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  an 
nexed  Texas  to  the  Union,  and  this  decision  was  confirmed  by  the 
arbitration  of  war.  The  question  whether  Texas  were  a  part  of 
Louisiana  or  not,  had  always  been  an  open  question  between  France 
and  Spain,  but  it  had  practically  been  yielded  by  France,  and  in 
the  treaty  of  1819  the  United  States  had  acquiesced  in  that  decision. 
By  the  treaties  with  Mexico  of  1848  and  1853,  the  dominion  of  the 
United  States  was  extended  by  the  acquisition  of  California  and  the 
region  now  covered  by  the  territory  between  that  State  and  Texas. 

We  recur  now  to  the  earlier  history  of  the  Spanish  possession  of 
these  regions. 

The  reader  has  already  been  told  2  of  the  destruction  of  the  oldest 
town  in  the  United  States,  St.  Augustine,  by  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  on  his  return  from  his  expedition  to  the  Spanish  Drake -s^- 
Main.    The  Spanish  Armada  occupied  the  attention  of  Eng-  saint°f 
land  too  intensely,  when  Drake  returned,  for  any  effort  to  be  A 
made,  either  to  follow  up  his  victory  in  Florida,  or  to  renew  the 
English   establishment  at    Roanoke.     The    Spaniards    who  had    fled 
from  his  arms  in  Florida,  returned   to  the  ruins  of  their   fort   and 
reestablished   it.      The   Menendez,  who  has  earned  the  right   to  be 
i  Vol.  i.(  p.  208.  9,  Vol.  i.,  p.  222. 


556 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


called  "great"  by  his  cruelty  and  falsehood,  had  died.  But  the 
government  of  St.  Augustine  was  made  hereditary  in  his  family  l 
until  the  year  1655.  The  history  of  the  colony,  meanwhile,  is  scarcely 
more  than  that  of  an  insignificant  garrison,  elevated  occasionally  to 
general  interest  in  the  events  of  a  general  war.2 

In  1593  twelve  brothers  of  the  order  of  St.  Francis  were  sent  to 
Florida,  to  continue  such  missions  as  had  been  established 
among   the  natives.     By  their   efforts   and   those  of  other 
brethren  sent  to  continue  and  enlarge  their  work,  many  missions  were 


Missions  in 
Florida. 


General  View  of  St.  Augustine. 

established  in  the  course  of  the  next  hundred  years.  Of  these,  the 
most  important  was  at  first  at  the  island  of  Guale.  But  the  chief  of 
the  savages  in  this  neighborhood  excited  his  people  against  them,  in 
a  severe  attack  which  resulted  in  the  murder  of  five  priests,  and  the 
cruel  injury  of  another.  The  Governor  avenged  them  by  burning  the 
granaries  and  dwellings  of  the  Indians.  In  the  years  1612  and  1613, 
thirty-one  missionaries  of  the  same  brotherhood  were  sent  to  Florida, 
and  the  name  of  St.  Helena  was  given  to  it  as  a  religious  province  of 
that  order.3  Twenty  missions  were  now  established,  and  the  brethren 

1  In  Buckingham  Smith's  collection  of  Florida  papers  is  the  will  of  one  of  the  smaller 
Menendez  governors. 

2  It  has  been  admirably  treated,  in  its  detail,  by  Mr.  Fairbanks  in  his  history.     The 
South  Carolina  Historical  Collections  give  original  authorities  on  the  "  wars  "  with  Carolina. 

3  This  name  must  not  he  confounded  with  the  name  of  St.  Helena  on  the  shore  of  South 
Carolina,  though  both  had  the  same  origin. 


1678.]  THE    SPANIARDS   AND   THE   ENGLISH.  557 

preached  to  the  natives  with  success  in  their  own  language.     In  1638, 
u  war  broke    out  between   the   colony  and  the    Apalachee    Indians. 
Such  Indians    as   were   captured  were   reduced   to  slavery ; 
the  tribe  was  so  far  overcome  as  to  be  kept  for  the  time  of  the  coi- 
within  its  own  limits.      Meanwhile  the  growth  of  the  colony 
was  so  small,  that  in  1647,  eighty-two  years  after  Menendez  founded 
the  colony,  the  number  of  families  in  St.  Augustine  was  but  three 
hundred,  and  this  was  almost  the  whole  of  the  settlement.     There 
were  also  fifty  Franciscan  friars  domiciled  in  the  city.     When  it  is 
remembered  that   Menendez  took  with   him   two  thousand  six  hun 
dred  and  fifty  colonists  from   Cadiz,  it  will   be  seen   that    the    his 
tory  of  Florida,  thus  far,  had  been  a  history  of  decline  and  not  of 
progress. 

With  the  colonists  of  Virginia  and  other  northern  colonies  the 
Spaniards  had  little  intercourse,  peaceful  or  otherwise.  So 
soon  as  Charles  II.  gave  a  charter  for  the  settlement  of  English ai 
Carolina,  which  was  in  1663,  jealousies  arose  on  both  sides, 
and  the  hatred  of  Englishmen  for  Spaniard,  and  Catholic  for  heretic, 
was  enough  to  keep  the  little  colonies  suspicious  of  each  other,  even 
when  nominal  peace  united  their  sovereigns  at  home.  In  1665  an 
expedition  under  Captain  John  Davis,  a  buccaneer,  made  a  descent 
on  St.  Augustine  and  ravaged  the  town.  In  1667,  however,  Charles 
II.  of  England  concluded  a  treaty  with  Spain,1  in  which  Spain  con 
ceded  to  England  all  colonies  which  Charles  and  his  subjects  "  then 
possessed."  On  the  other  hand,  Charles  agreed  to  cut  off  all  future 
protection  from  the  buccaneers,  who,  till  this  time,  .had  considered 
Spanish  property  to  be  fair  prize  if  found  in  the  Pacific,  and  were 
not  distressed  if  they  seized  it  in  the  pther  great  ocean.  No  Eng 
lish  settlement  was  in  fact  made  in  Carolina,  under  Charles's  charter, 
until  1670.  But,  in  the  diplomacy  of  the  two  nations,  it  was  virtually 
agreed  that  the  English  claim  to  that  region  was  good,  and  the  line 
of  the  St.  Mary's  River  was  eventually  agreed  on  as  the  line  of  the 
separation  between  the  English  and  Spanish  dominions.  It  is  there 
fore,  to  this  day,  the  dividing  line  between  the  State  of  Georgia,  which 
bears  an  English  name,  and  that  of  Florida,  which  retains  the  Spanish 
name  given  it  by  Ponce  de  Leon.2 

The  Spaniards,  on  their  side,  attacked  the  English  colonies  in  1670 
and  1686,  but  without  other  success  than  burning  and  ravaging  the 
homes  of  a  few  settlers  on  the  coast.  Such  raids,  of  course,  kept  up 
the  feeling  of  mutual  hatred,  strong  enough  at  the  very  best.  But 

1  Each  king  was  Charles  II.    Charles  II.  of  England  reigned  from  1660  to  1685.    Charles 
II.  of  Spain  reigned  from  1665  to  1700. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  p.  147. 


558 


SPANISH    COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


for  the   rest  of    the  seventeenth  century,    there  was  no   exploit   on 
either  side  which  deserves  the  name  of  war. 

Menendez  had  been  authorized,  at  the  very  beginning  of  the  col 
ony,  to  introduce  five  hundred  negro  slaves.  So  many  laboring  men 
pressed  themselves  upon  him  in  Spain,  that  he  made  no  use  of  the 
concession.  But  in  1687  one  hundred  negroes  were  introduced  as 
slaves,  and  for  nearly  two  centuries  Florida  suffered  under  the  dis 
advantage  of  slave  labor.  Cabrera,  who  was  governor  in  1681,  un 
dertook  the  enterprise  of  removing  the  Indians  not  Christianized  to 
the  islands  of  the  coast.  The  result  was  simply  an  insurrection  of 
these  tribes,  who  took  refuge  within  the  limits  of  Carolina.  In  a  sub 
sequent  incursion,  these  Indians  attacked  the  Tomoquas,  a  Christian 


The  settle 
ment  of 
I'ensaoola. 


tribe,  friendly  to  the  Spaniards,  whose  name  is  still  preserved  in  the 
Tomoka  River.  They  killed  a  large  number  of  the  Tomoquas,  and 
carried  the  other  prisoners  to  the  colony  of  St.  Helena,  where  their 
Christianity  did  not  protect  them  so  far  but  that  they  were  reduced 
into  slavery. 

Meanwhile,  on  the  western  coast  of  the  peninsula  of  Florida,  the 
Spanish  government  established  a  fort  at  Pensacola,  in  the 
year  1696.  The  name  of  the  place,  spelled  by  them  Pen- 
cacola,  is  that  of  a  tribe  of  Indians  who  once  resided  there. 
The  Spaniards  were  stimulated  by  the  efforts  of  the  French  to  settle 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi,  and,  indeed,  had  only  just  founded 
Pensacola  when  the  French  colony  under  D'Iberville  arrived.  A 
square  fort,  known  by  the  name  of  Charles,  the  king  of  Spain,  a 
church,  and  other  public  buildings,  were  erected.  Andres  d'Arriola 
was  the  first  governor.  Within  two  years  D'Iberville  touched  at  the 
new  post,  nor  was  it  long  before  his  brother  was  attacking  it,  in  the 
War  of  the  Succession.  Before  that  time,  however,  new  opportunities 


1700.]  WAR   WITH   CAROLINA.  559 

for  carnage  and  ravage  had  been  found  by  English  and  Spaniards  on 
the  eastern  shore. 

Near  the  close  of  the  year  1700,  on  the  death  of  Governor  Blake  of 
Carolina,  James  Moore  had  been  chosen  as  his  successor.  With  the 
poor  object  of  personal  gain  from  the  traffic  in  Indian  slaves,  he 
granted  commissions  for  the  capture  of  Indians  with  power  to  sell 
them  as  slaves  ;  and,  on  the  outbreak  in  Europe  of  the  war  with 
Spain,  he  undertook  an  expedition  against  St.  Augustine  with  the 
same  object  in  view.  He  embarked  with  this  purpose  in  September, 
1702,  having  arranged  that  Daniel,  an  officer  of  spirit,  should  make  a 
descent  upon  the  town  by  land,  while  Moore  himself  block-  English  ex. 
aded  the  harbor  by  sea.  The  Spaniards,  under  their  gov-  Sst^Augu^- 
ernor  Cuniga,  had  heard  of  the  movement,  and  retired  with  tme- 
their  effects  into  their  castle.  When  Moore  arrived,  he  found  his 
guns  too  weak  to  assault  them,  and  sent  Daniel  to  Jamaica  for  heavy 
artillery.  While  Daniel  was  absent,  two  Spanish  ships,  one  of 
twenty-two  guns  and  one  of  eighteen,  appeared  off  the  harbor,  and 
so  terrified  the  English  that  they  raised  the  siege.  Moore  retired 
by  land  to  Charleston,  without  losing  a  man,  burning  the  town  of 
St.  Augustine  and  his  own  transports.  Daniel,  on  his  return  with 
the  mortars  and  guns  for  which  he  had  been  sent,  hardly'  escaped 
capture. 

The  Spaniards  retaliated  for  this  foolish  assault  in  exciting  the 
Apalachee  Indians,  their  allies,  to  attack  the  English  set-  SpanishRe. 
tlements.  The  Apalachees  marched,  nine  hundred  in  num-  taliation- 
ber,  but  fell  into  an  ambush  of  the  Creeks,  who  were  always  the 
firm  allies  of  the  English,  and  were  routed  by  them.  In  reward  for 
this  service,  all  who  survived  of  the  Indians  who  had  been  held  as 
slaves  in  St.  Augustine  and  those  who  had  been  taken  since  1640, 
were  now  set  free  by  Cuniga,  under  a  promise  that  they  should  return 
to  work  on  the  fortifications  whenever  they  were  needed.  Cuniga 
urged  the  government  at  home  to  send  him  the  means  to  make  five 
new  posts  on  his  frontiers.  Before  any  such  aid  reached  him,  Moore, 
with  a  thousand  Creeks  and  about  fifty  of  the  Carolina  militia,  at 
tacked  the  Indian  allies  of  the  Spaniards  and  defeated  them.  He 
carried  away  three  hundred  slaves,  —  most  of  the  people  of  seven 
Indian  towns.1  He  burned  San  Luis  and  Ayaralla,  and  took  the 
church  plate  and  vestments,  and  everything  else  of  value.  These 
Indians  had,  before  this  time,  made  some  progress  in  civilization  —  it 
was,  perhaps,  the  loosening  of  the  habits  of  savage  life  which  made 
them  so  easy  a  prey  to  the  untamed  savages  who  attacked  them. 
This  incursion  was  followed  by  others,  frequent  enough  to  forbid  the 

1  South  Carolina  Report  in  Carroll's  Collections,  ii.  353. 


560  SPANISH   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

recolonization  of  the  wasted  country  before  the  end  of  the  war.  So 
enraged  were  the  Indians  that  the  Carolinians  were  obliged  to  put 
up  forts  for  their  frontier  defence,  one  of  which  was  established  at 
Apalachicola,  close  to  the  limits  of  the  State  of  Florida.1  The  Ye- 
massees,  who  had  been  driven  out  from  Carolina  into  Florida,  kept 
up  an  unremitted  warfare  on  the  frontiers. 

So  soon  as  Bienville,  Governor  of  Louisiana,  learned  in  1719,  that 
war  existed  between  Spain  and  France,  he  took  Pensacola  bv 

Capture  and  .  .*-  . 

recapture  of  surprise.  Ihe  Spaniards  retook  it  at  once,  in  the  same 
way.  But,  in  September  of  the  same  year,  Bienville  took 
it  again.  This  time  the  French  commander  destroyed  the  fortifica 
tions  and  the  town,  leaving  only  a  small  battery  and  a  handful  of 
men.  In  1722,  the  Spaniards  reoccupied  the  harbor,  and  built  a 
town  on  Santa  Rosa  island,  near  where  Fort  Pickens  now  stands. 
But  the  settlement  was  gradually  transferred  to  the  northern  side  of 
the  bay,  where  the  present  city  of  Pensacola  stands ;  the  point  taken 
on  the  island  having  proved  particularly  sandy  and  barren. 

In  1732,  Oglethorpe's  settlement  of  Georgia  pressed  even  closer 
than  Carolina  had  done  on  the  frontiers  of  Florida.  Oglethorpe 
Hostilities  claimed  that  the  Altamaha  was  the  southern  boundary  of  his 
^^and«  province.  The  English  fort,  King  George,  erected  on  the 
Florida.  banks  of  that  river,  had  already  given  umbrage  to  the  Span 
iards,  and  in  1736,  the  Spanish  government  ordered  Oglethorpe  to 
evacuate  all  territory  south  of  St.  Helena  Sound.  The  Governor 
brought  three  companies  of  foot  with  him  to  Frederics,  the  most 
northerly  Spanish  settlement,  —  the  place  still  known  by  the  same 
name  on  the  sea-coast  of  Georgia.  Oglethorpe  went  at  once  to  Eng 
land  for  aid.  At  that  moment  the  people  of  England  were  indig 
nant  with  Spain  for  other  reasons,  and  Oglethorpe  returned,  with  the 
commission  of  major-general,  and  a  regiment  of  men.  The  Span 
iards  strengthened  St.  Augustine  in  their  turn.  In  October,  Wai- 
pole's  pacific  policy  was  abandoned,  war  was  declared,  and  the  Eng 
lish  sent  a  squadron  under  Admiral  Vernon  to  the  West  Indies,  with 
directions  to  aid  Oglethorpe,  who  at  once  set  on  foot  operations 
against  St.  Augustine.  He  succeeded  in  cementing  the  alliance  be 
tween  the  English  and  the  Creeks,  who  hated  the  Spaniards  with  a 
very  perfect  hatred. 

The  officers  of  the  navy  having  agreed  to  cooperate  in  the  attack 
on  St.  Augustine,  Oglethorpe  appointed  a  rendezvous  on  the  Florida 
side  of  the  St.  John's  River  and  moved  on  the  9th  of  May,  1740,  with 

1  This  is  not  at  the  site  of  the  present  town  of  Apalachicola.  The  point  was  farther  up 
the  river  of  that  name,  not  far  from  Chattahoochee.  The  fort  known  as  Savanas  was  still 
farther  up,  and  must  not  be  confounded  with  the  site  of  Savannah. 


1  740.] 


WAR  WITH  GEORGIA. 


561 


four  hundred  whites  and  a  large  party  of  Indians.  The  next  day  he  in 
vested  a  Spanish  outpost  called  Diego,  belonging  to  a  Spaniard,  named 
Spinosa,  reduced  and  garrisoned  it.  He  then  returned  to  his  rendez 
vous,  and  with  his  whole  command  —  two  thousand  men,  regular 
troops,  provincials,  and  Indians,  moved  against  Fort  Moosa,  two  miles 
from  St.  Augustine.  The  Spaniards  abandoned  this  post  and  retired  into 
the  town,  which  he  had  given  them  time  to  provision  by  driving  in 
cattle,  while  he  was  occupied  with  Fort  Diego  and  his  counter-marches. 
He  was  compelled  to  blockade  the  harbor  and  invest  the  town.  He  left 


Oglethorpe's  Attack  on  St    Augustine  (from   "  An   Impartial   Account  of  the  Late   Expedition  to  St.  Augus 
tine."      London,  1742). l 

ninety-five  Highlanders  and  forty-two  Indians  at  Moosa,  to  intercept  all 
supplies  of  cattle  for  the  town.  This  was  all  the  force  he  left  on  the 
land  side.  He  sent  Colonel  Vanderdussen,  with  the  Carolina  regiment, 
to  take  Point  Quartelle  on  the  water  side,  about  a  mile  distant  from 
the  castle,  and  build  a  battery.  With  his  own  regiment  and  most  of 
the  Indians  he  landed  on  the  island  of  Anastasia.  One  of  the  ships 
was  stationed  to  the  southward  to  block  up  the  Matanzas  passage,  and 
the  others  blockaded  the  harbor.  Batteries  were  erected  on  Anastasia. 
Having  made  these  dispositions,  Oglethorpe  summoned  the  Spanish 

i  KEY  TO  THE  MAP.  — 1.  The  Town.  2.  The  Castle.  3.  ABattery.  4.  Moosa  or  Negro  Fort.  5.  The  Look 
out.  6.  Small  Fort  abandoned  by  the  Spaniards.  7.  A  Battery  of  one  mortar,  and  three  six-pounders.  8. 
A  Battery,  one  mortar,  two  eighteen-pounders,  and  one  nine-pounder.  9  Six  half  galleys  at  anchor  (Span 
ish).  10.  A  Battery,  two  mortars,  four  eighteen-pounders,  and  one  nine-pounder.  11.  Harbor  "  where 
our  vessels  lay."  12.  Carolina  Regiments,  first  Camp  on  Pt.  Quartelle.  13.  Sailor's  Camp.  14.  Carolina 
Regiments,  Second  Camp  on  Pt.  Quartelle.  15.  Carolina  Camp  upon  Acastasia.  16.  The  Volunteers'  Camp. 
17  Gen  Oglethorpe's  Camp  after  he  went  from  Anastasia. 
vol..  ii  36 


562  SPANISH   COLONIZATION.  [€HAP.  XXIII. 

garrison  ;  to  receive  from  the  Governor  the  cheerful  answer  that  he 
should  be  glad  to  kiss  his  hands  in  the  fort.  Oglethorpe  then  began 
his  attack  by  throwing  shells  into  the  town,  which  were  returned  by 
the  fort  and  six  half  galleys  in  the  harbor.  Little  execution  was  done 
on  either  side.  Captain  Warren  of  the  English  navy  offered  to  lead 
a  night  attack  against  the  Spanish  galleys,  but  a  council  of  war  de 
clared  this  impracticable.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Spanish  com 
mander  sent  out  a  detachment  against  Colonel  Palmer  in  his  isolated 
post  at  Moosa,  and  broke  it  up,  killed  him  and  sixty-eight  of  his 
men,  and  took  many  prisoners.  A  party  of  Chickasaws  coming  to 
the  English  camp,  cut  off  a  Spaniard's  head  and  brought  it  to  Ogle 
thorpe.  He  showed  his  indignation,  called  them  barbarous  dogs  and 
bade  them  begone.  The  proud  "  unconquered  Chickasaws "  were 
offended,  and  said  the  French  would  not  treat  them  thus,  had  they 
carried  in  an  English  head,  —  which  was  probably  true.  These  allies, 
thus  rebuffed,  deserted  the  English  camp.  The  vessel  at  the  Matan- 
zas  passage  was  not  a  sufficient  guard  on  the  south.  For,  by  the 
Mosquito  inlet,  which  runs  parallel  to  the  sea,  supplies  from  Cuba 
were  received  by  the  garrison.  The  master  of  the  vessel  at  Ma- 
tanzas  Inlet  could  see  them  pass,  beyond  his  range  of  prevention. 
Some  Spanish  prisoners,  who  were  carried  to  Oglethorpe,  told  him 
that  the  reinforcements  were  seven  hundred  men,  with  a  large  supply 
of  provisions.  All  prospect  was  thus  lost  of  starving  the  garrison. 
Retreat  of  The  naval  commander  of  the  English  feared  hurricanes,  and 
the  English,  g^j  jje  mu8^  withdraw.  The  Carolinian  troops  withdrew 
without  asking  leave.  And  poor  General  Oglethorpe  himself,  sick  of 
a  fever,  was  obliged  to  withdraw  his  own  regiment,  and  reached  Fred- 
erica  early  in  July. 

So  disgraceful  a  defeat  of  a  force  so  considerable  greatly  elated  the 
Spaniards.  When  their  supplies  arrived  from  the  Havana,  they  had 
but  three  days'  bread,  and  they  piously  ascribed  their  relief  to  St. 
Rosana,  the  Virgin  of  the  Apalachees.  The  Carolinians,  who  had 
expended  men  and  money  freely  in  the  expedition,  were  indignant, 
and  charged  Oglethorpe  with  utter  incompetency,  nor  were  the  officers 
of  the  English  army- and  navy  of  another  opinion. 

Monteano,  the  Spanish  Governor,  who  had  defended  his  post  so  well, 
expected  a  renewal  of  the  attack  in  the  autumn,  which  would  have 
been  a  much  more  favorable  season  for  his  enemies.  He  begged  for 
reinforcements,  and  received  eight  companies  of  infantry.  But  no 
second  attack  came.  He  was  tempted  to  retaliate.  A  terrible  fire 
had  devastated  Charleston,  and  he  urged  the  Governor  at  Cuba  to 
make  an  attack  on  the  place  at  the  moment  of  its  exhaustion.  His 
advice  was  not  taken  in  1741,  but  in  the  next  year  a  fleet  of  thirty- 


1762.] 


FLORIDA    CEDED   TO   ENGLAND. 


563 


six  sail  with  two  thousand  men  was  sent  to  him.  He  added  a  force 
of  one  thousand  men,  took  the  command,  and  sailed  for  the  harbor  of 
St.  Simon's,  better  known  now,  perhaps,  as  the  harbor  of  Brunswick. 
This  movement,  however,  was,  in  its  turn,  unsuccessful,  and  Monteano 
returned  as  much  mortified  as  Oglethorpe  the  year  before. 

In  March  of  the  next  year,  Oglethorpe  took  the  aggressive,  and 
marched  to  the  very  walls  of  St.  Augustine,  with  such  celer-   Continued 
ity,  that  his  Indian  allies  killed  forty  Spanish  soldiers  before  hostillties- 
they  could  enter  the  fort.     But,  failing  to  draw  out   the  Spaniards 
for  an  encounter  in  the'  field  he  again  retired,  and  in  1748,  peace  at 
home  closed  these  miserable  hostilities  on  the  frontier.     The  garrison 


Old  Gate  at  St.  Augustine. 

at  St.  Augustine  was  so  reduced  that  in  1759  the  whole  force  was  but 
five  hundred  men.  When  in  1762  hostilities  broke  out  again  be 
tween  England  and  Spain,  an  English  fleet  seized  the  Havana,  and, 
on  the  negotiation  of  peace,  Spain  was  glad  to  cede  Florida  to  regain 
Cuba.  This  measure  indeed  was  necessary  to  the  tripartite 

T     i  i  r\        -i         -i      r-i        •  Cession  of 

diplomacy  between  England,  Spain,  and  France,  in  which   Florida  to 
eastern  Louisiana  was  ceded  to  England.     For,  where  east 
ern  Louisiana  began  and  where  Florida  ended,  had  never  been  de 
termined.     Spain  gained  by  that   treaty  all  western  Louisiana,  and 
could  well  afford  to  give  up  Florida  to  the  victorious  English,  who 
thus  carried  to  the  Gulf  the  frontier  of  that  colonial  empire  which 
was  to  be  theirs  for  so  few  years.     The  English  government  named 


564  SPANISH  COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

General  Grant  Governor  of  East  Florida,  and  he  received  the  post  from 
the  Spaniards.  At  the  period  of  the  evacuation  the  whole  population 
amounted  to  5,700  persons,  including  a  garrison  of  2,000  men.  Many 
condition  of  ^effc  tue  Place  never  to  return.  Three  years  afterward,  a 
Ifncufter'  traveller  speaks  of  Picolata,  a  small  fort  and  garrison  on 
the  cession.  the  gt>  john5  Mr  Roi]e's  settlement,  twenty-five  miles  above, 
and  Mr.  Spalding's  trading  house,  fifteen  miles  farther  up,  as  the  only 
stations  on  this  magnificent  river.1  The  greater  part  of  the  popu 
lation  of  Florida  consisted  of  a  mixture  of  the  remnants  of  the 
Cowetas,  Talipoosas,  Coosas,  Apalachees,  Cussetas,  Ockmulgees,  Wee- 
tumkas,  Pakanas,  Taensas,  Chaesihoomas,  Abekas,  and  other  tribes, 
who  had  organized  in  a  confederacy  under  the  name,  since  well  known 
and  formidable,  of  Muscogees.  From  this  confederacy  the  Seminoles 
afterwards  parted ;  their  name  Isty-Semole,  wild  men,  indicates  that 
they  were  hunters,  rather  than  farmers.  In  1773,  Bartram  speaks  of 
the  Seminoles  as  but  a  weak  people  in  respect  of  numbers ;  he  sup 
poses  all  of  them  would  not  people  one  of  the  Muscogee  towns.  As 
civilization  advanced,  and  the  Indian  towns  were  broken  up,  the 
"wild  men"  must  have  gained  accessions  from  their  former  kindred. 
Bartram  "  ventures  to  assert  that  no  part  of  the  globe  so  abounds 
with  wild  game  or  creatures  fit  for  the  food  of  man  "  as  the  territory 
which  they  then  inhabited.  The  population  of  this  Muscogee  confede 
racy,  sixty  years  after,  was  twenty-six  thousand.2  The  population  of 
Indians  and  whites  in  1762  was  probably  larger  than  that  of  whites 
and  negroes  in  1830,  when  there  were  only  about  fifteen  thousand  of 
each  of  those  races,  reported  in  the  census  of  the  United  States. 

While  the  kings  of  Spain  followed  up  thus  languidly  the  expedi 
tions  of  Ponce  de  Leon  and  of  Hernando  de  Soto,  in  Florida  and  the 
other  eastern  regions  traversed  by  those  adventurers,  their  viceroys  and 
other  officers  in  Mexico  showed  more  eagerness  both  in  discovery  and 
in  colonization  to  the  northward,  and  their  enterprises,  both  by  sea  and 
by  land,  come  within  the  range  of  the  historian  of  the  United  States. 

Hernando  Cortez  himself,  as  early  as  1534,  sent  out  an  expedition 
of  discovery  under  Hernando  de  Grijalva  on  the  Pacific  coast, 
Lowe/cail-  in  which  that  commander  first  discovered  the  peninsula  of 
California.  Not  long  before,  a  Spanish  author,3  who  had 
with  very  inferior  genius  attempted  to  write  a  sequel  to  Lobeira's  in 
imitable  romance  of  Amadis  of  Gaul,  had  invented  a  pagan  queen  of 

1  Bartram  found  only  the  same  settlements  in  1773,  three  more  trading-posts  were  to  be 
established  in  that  year.     His  map  shows  the  sites  of  "  Rollestown  "  and  Spalding's  post. 

2  Roman's  Florida.     Gallatin's  Synopsis,  p.  101. 
8  Garcia  Ordonez  de  Montalvo. 


1534.] 


"CALIFORNIA." 


56o 


Amazons,  who  brought  from  the  "Right  hand  of  the  Indies"  her 
allies  to  the  assistance  of  the  infidels  in  their  attacks  on  Constanti 
nople.  In  this  romance  —  which 
bore  the  name  of  "  Esplandian," 
—  the  Emperor  Esplandian,  the 
imaginary  son  of  the  imaginary 
Amadis,  appears  as  the  Greek 
emperor,  living  in  Constantino 
ple.  The  imaginary  Amazo 
nian  queen  is  Calafia,  and  to 
her  imagined  kingdom,  blazing 
with  gold  and  diamonds  and 
pearls,  the  author  had  given  the 
name  "  California,"  a  name  per 
haps  derived  from  the  word 
Calif,  which  in  the  mind  of  the 
children  of  crusaders  was  con 
nected  with  paynim  lands.  This 
romance,  which  would  now  be 
forgotten  but  for  this  name 
California,  and  from  a  single 
reference  to  it  in  Don  Quixote, 
was  a  comparatively  new  novel  in  the  days  of  Cortez,  the  first  edition 
having  been  issued  from  the  press  only  in  the  year  1510,  and  the  sec 
ond  in  1519.  Both  Grijalva  and  Cortez  were  still  deluded 
by  the  universal  impression  of  their  time  that  they  were  on  namen€aii- e 
the  coast  of  Asia  or  in  its  neighborhood  ;  and,  having  discov 
ered  this  region  near  the  latitude  of  Constantinople  "on  the  right 
hand  of  the  Indies,"  they  were  not  unwilling  to  engage  the  interest 
of  the  romance-reading  world  by  giving  to  their  discovery  the  name 
of  the  gold  and  diamond  bearing  region  of  Amazons. 

This  unknown  country,  which  by  this  accident  gave  the  name  to 
the  country  which  proved  to  be  the  richest  gold-bearing  region  in  the 
world,  was  thus  described  by  the  exuberant  fancy  of  the  romancer, 
twenty-five  years  before  Grijalva  discovered  the  peninsula  of  Califor 
nia,  and  at  least  thirty  years  before  the  discovery  of  that  part  of  the 
mainland  which  has  yielded  to  the  world  its  untold  millions  of  gold. 

"  Know  that  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Indies  there  is  an  island 
called  California,  very  close  to  the  side  of  the  Terrestrial  Paradise,1 
and  it  was  peopled  by  black  women  without  any  man  among  them, 

1  In  the  cosmogony  of  that  time  it  was  supposed,  as  it  had  been  supposed  in  Dante's 
time,  that  the  Terrestrial  Paradise  was  opposite  to  Jerusalem.  Compare  Mr.  Hole's  paper, 
Am.  Ant.  Soc.  Transactions,  April,  1872. 


Portrait  of   Cortez. 


566  SPANISH  COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIII. 

for  they  lived  in  the  fashion  of  Amazons.  They  were  of  strong  and 
hardy  bodies,  of  ardent  courage,  and  great  force.  Their  island  was 
the  strongest  in  all  the  world,  with  its  steep  cliffs  and  rocky  shores. 
Their  arms  were  all  of  gold,  and  so  was  the  harness  of  the  wild  beasts 
which  they  tamed  and  rode.  For  in  the  whole  island  l  there  was  no 
metal  but  gold.  They  lived  in  caves  wrought  out  of  the  rock  with 
much  labor.  They  had  many  ships  with  which  they  sailed  out  to 
other  countries  to  obtain  booty."  In  another  part  of  the  romance  it 
is  said  coolly  that  precious  stones  are  to  be  found  in  California  like 
stones  of  the  field  for  their  abundance. 

The  imperious  and  impetuous  Cortez  was  dissatisfied  with  the  slow 
Expedition  progress  of  Grijalva,  and  embarked  himself,  in  hope  of  more 
of  cortez.  success,  with  four  hundred  Spaniards  and  three  hundred 
slaves  in  1535.  He  had,  before  this,  sent  a  small  expedition  north  by 
land,  of  whose  fate  he  never  heard  a  word.  He  now  coasted  both 
sides  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  then  called  the  Gulf  of  Cortez,  but 
known  for  nearly  two  centuries  afterwards  as  the  Red  Sea.2  During 
his  stay  in  the  bay  of  Santa  Cruz  he  learned  the  distressing  news  of 
the  arrival  of  the  Viceroy  Mendoza.  The  appointment  of  this  officer 
by  the  Emperor  Charles  left  to  the  great  conqueror  no  civil  adminis 
tration,  and  restricted  him  to  his  duties  as  military  commander.  So 
eager  was  he,  however,  for  the  further  prosecution  of  discovery  at  the 
north,  that  he  sent  Francisco  de  Ulloa  to  continue  it,  and  in  the 
course  of  two  years  Ulloa  traced  the  coasts  of  California  nearly  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Colorado  River  of  the  West. 

The  very  first  exploration  of  the  Gulf  of  California  resulted  in  the 
discovery  of  pearls,  and  from  that  day  to  this  the  pearl  fishery  has 
been  prosecuted  there.  In  the  excited  notions  of  that  day,  it  was 
taken  for  granted  that  a  country  which  produced  pearls  would  pro 
duce  gold  and  diamonds ;  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  a  re 
flected  glory  from  the  romance  of  "  Esplandian,"  and  the  gorgeous 
description  there  of  the  imagined  California,  hung  over  the  unex 
plored  parts  of  the  namesake  of  that  province.  Spaniards  are  pro 
verbially  ready  for  building  castles  in  the  air ;  and,  although  the 
voyages  of  Grijalva,  of  Cortez,  and  of  Ulloa,  brought  back  no  diamonds, 
and  no  gold,  yet  they  brought  pearls  enough  to  awaken  popular 
interest  and  curiosity.  As  it  happened,  also,  these  reports  gave  birth 
to  another  romance  hardly  second  in  absurdity  to  the  fables  of  Esplan 
dian.  Mendoza,  the  viceroy,  was  disgusted  when  he  found  that  his 
rival  Cortez  still  insisted  on  his  right  to  send  out  explorers.  When 

1  It  is  possible  that  this  reference  to  the  island  gives  the  reason  why,  in  face  of  all  ex 
plorations,  the  geographers  so  long  marked  the  peninsula  of  California  as  an  island. 

2  So  called  by  Marquette  in  his  Narrative. 


1540.]  FATHER  NigA   AND   CORONADO.  587 


Cortez  sent  out  Ulloa,  Mendoza  borrowed  money  with  which  to  send 
out  Vasquez  de  Coronado  in  the  same  direction.  Coronado  sent  in 
advance  a  Franciscan  friar  named  Marco  de  Niga,  who  had 
with  him  a  negro,  one  of  the  four  men  who  had  crossed  the  of  Marco  de 
continent  from  the  perilous  expedition  under  Narvaez.1  This 
Father  Marco  showed  a  facility  in  narrative,  which  belongs  only  to 
the  master  of  that  "  lie  with  a  circumstance  "  which  is  said  to  be  the 
most  deceptive  lie  of  all.  Returning  to  Coronado  he  announced  the 
discovery  of  seven  cities,  whose  number  alone  suggested  the  famous 
"  seven  cities  "  of  the  island  of  the  old  legend.2  To  the  capital  of 
these  Seven  Cities  the  name  Cibola,  or  Cevola,  was  given.  He  gave 
a  description  of  the  city  of  Cibola,  as  he  finally  arrived  there  after 
thirty  days  of  travel  from  St.  Michael  in  Culiacan.3 

According  to  his  story,  Stephen  Dorantes  —  the  negro,  who  had 
served  as  in  some  sort  a  guide,  and  whom  he  had  sent  before  him  — 
had  been  killed  by  the  jealous  inhabitants  of  this  city.  Nic,a  himself, 
however,  determined  to  see  it  with  his  own  eyes  ;  and  thus  came 
near  enough  for  the  mountain  prospect  which  he  describes.  He  then 
fled  back  with  his  story  to  St.  Michael  in  Culiacan,  "  with  more  fear 
than  victuals,"  as  he  says. 

In  sharp  contrast  with  his  tales  of  gold  and  silver  and  turquoises 
and  diamonds,  is  the  business-like    report  of   Vasquez   de  Expedition 
Coronado,  who  with  a  little  army  followed  up  the  father's  ofdcoro-rt 
traces.     On  the  22d  of  April,  1540,  they  left  St.  Michael,  nado- 
and  on  the  23d  of   June,  had   arrived,  by  travelling   in  a  northern 
and  northeasterly  direction,  on  the  confines  of   a  desert  country  of 
which  Ni^a   had   warned   them.     Through  the   desert    "  is   a  most 
wicked  way,  at  least  thirty  leagues  and  more  because  they  are  inac 
cessible  mountains."     After  the  thirty  leagues,  however,  they  found 
pleasant  country,  with  rivers  and  grass,  and,  in  a  day  more,  they  met 
Indians  who  at  first  seemed  friendly.     But  a  day  or  two  more  showed 
that  the  natives  meant  to  defend  their  passes,  but  brought  Coronado 
to  a  town,  which  he  called  Grenada,  and  which,  however  unlike  the 
Cibola  of  Father  Marco's  description,  he  was  willing  to  accept  for  it. 

"  To  be  brief,"  he  writes,  "  I  can  assure  your  honour  that  the  friar 
saith  truth  in  nothing  that  he  reported,  but  all  was  quite  the  con 
trary."  Still  the  names  of  the  cities  proved  to  be  correct,  and  al 
though  the  houses  were  not  wrought  with  turquoises  nor  lime  nor 
brick,  they  proved  to  be  "  very  excellent  good  houses  "  of  three  or 
four  lofts  high,  with  good  lodgings  and  fair  chambers  and  ladders 

*  See  vol.  i.,  p.  156. 

2  See  vol.  i.,  pp.  13,  35.     Compare  note  xxiv.  in  Appendix  to  vol.  iii.,  Irving's  Columbus. 

8  See  vol.  i.,  p.  192. 


568 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


instead  of  stairs.     The  seven  cities  were  within  four  leagues  of  each 
other  and  all  together  made  the  kingdom  of  Cibola. 

Of  turquoises,  Coronado  found  none,  though  he  thought  some  had 
been  carried  away  in  fear  of  his  arrival ;  of  emeralds  he  found  two, 
which  were  lost  on  his  way  home ;  and  of  gold  none.  This  was  the 
sorry  result  of  the  monk's  story  and  of  the  expedition  founded  upon 
it.  The  natives  wore  cotton  dresses,  though  Coronado  thought  the 
country  too  cold  for  cotton.1  He  said  they  ate  the  best  cakes  that  he 


A  Pueblo  restored  (from  Cozzens). 

ever  saw,  and  had  the  best  way  of  grinding.  One  woman  of  Cibola 
would  grind  four  times  as  much  meal  as  four  Mexican  women.  They 
brought  their  salt  from  a  lake  only  one  day's  journey  from  their  city. 
But  they  had  no  knowledge  of  the  Northern  Sea,  nor  of  the  Western 
Sea,  at  which  ignorance  Coronado  did  not  wonder,  for  he  believed 
himself  one  hundred  and  fifty  leagues  from  the  Western  Ocean.  He 
describes  what  we  must  suppose  to  be  buffaloes,  as  "  sheep  as  big  as  a 
horse,  with  very  great  horns  and  little  tails,  —  with  their  horns  so  big 
that  it  is  a  wonder  to  behold  their  greatness." 

Here  ends  Coronado's  own  narrative,  which  deserves  respect  and 

credence.     He  would  not  return  without  doing  something  nor  with 

empty  hands,  and  as  he  was  told  that  the  country  was  better  and 

better  he  went  on.     Cardenas  with  a  company  of  cavalry  continued 

1  It  afterwards  proved  that  these  dresses  were  made  from  the  thread  of  the  maguey. 


1543.]  CABRILLO.  569 

westward  till  he  came  to  the  sea.  Coronado  went  to  Tiguex  and 
there  had  news  of  the  long-sought  Quivira.  After  sieges  and  battles 
and  other  adventures,  he  found  a  region  which  he  accepted  as  worthy 
of  that  name.  But  in  place  of  the  hoary-headed  King  Tatatrax 
whom  he  was  to  find  here,  who  was  girt  with  a  Bracamart  and 
worshipped  a  cross  of  gold  with  the  image  of  the  Queen  Fate  of  Cor. 
of  Heaven,  Coronado  found  a  naked  savage,  with  a  jewel  of  onado- 
copper  hanging  from  his  neck,  "  which  was  all  his  riches."  After 
two  years  of  such  misadventures,  Coronado  fell  from  his  horse  and 
went  mad.  The  rest  of  his  party,  excepting  one  or  two  stragglers, 
returned  to  Mexico.1 

They  represented  Quivira  as  in  the  latitude  of  forty,  with  grass, 
plums,  mulberries,  nuts,  melons,  and  grapes,  but  without  cotton. 
The  people  dressed  in  ox-hides  and  deer-skins.  They  reported, 
Gomara  says,  that  they  had  seen  ships  on  the  coast,  with  golden 
albatrosses  or  pelicans  on  their  .prows,  the  seamen  of  which  made 
signs  that  their  voyage  had  been  thirty  days. 

The  narrative  of  Gomara  is  entitled  to  little  historical  regard,  —  that 
of  Father  Niga  to  none.  But  the  manly  letter  of  Coronado  commands 
respect,  and  his  narrative  was  unexpectedly  confirmed  nearly  half  a 
century  after,  by  a  new  discovery  which  enables  us  to  fix  with  some 
precision  the  site  of  Cibola  and  the  "seven  cities."  Coron  ado's  re 
port  displeased  Mendoza,  who  had  spent  large  sums  in  the  expedition. 
But  Coronado  insisted  that  the  country  was  poor  and  too  far  from  suc 
cor,  and  therefore  no  establishment  was  made  there.  An  after"  narra 
tive  gives  a  more  particular  description  of  the  buffalo,  and  alludes  to 
the  custom  of  the  natives  of  burning  the  buffaloes'  dung.  These  no 
tices  are  alone  sufficient,  in  a  degree,  to  locate  Quivira.  But  his  tale  of 
dogs,  trained  as  beasts  of  burden,  has  not  yet  been  confirmed  by 
other  writers.  With  the  introduction  of  the  horse,  the  Indians  may 
have  abandoned  such  use  of  those  animals.  Meanwhile,  upon  the  coast, 
after  various  failures,  a  voyage  was  made  in  154^,  which  resulted  in 
the  discovery  of  the  sea-coast  of  that  part  of  California,  voyage  of 
which  is  now  so  important  a  State.  Juan  Rodriguez  Cabrillo  Cabrill°- 
sailed  with  two  ships  from  the  port  de  Navidad,  on  the  27th  of  June.  /£TfV 
in  that  year. 

Touching  near  the  point  of  the  peninsula,  he  coasted  it  on  its  oceaiL^  — 
side  as  far  as  the  latitude  of  44°.     Here  he  found  extreme^oIcTin 
March  of  t&fSSR,  and  returned.    He  gave  names  to  different  points, 
which  have  not  been  retained,  with  the  exception  of  Cape  Mendocino, 
which  he  named  in  honor   of  the  Viceroy  Mendoza,  who  had   sent 

him.    He  described  it  as  a  large  cape  between  mountains  covered  with 

/  I  f*     v/>h   j 

1 


Gomara,  cited  in  Hakluyt,  iii.  p.  454. 


570 


\ 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


jmow.  This  cape  subsequently  became  the  point  best  known  upon 
that  coast,  because  the  Spanish  fleets  took  their  departure  from  it  on 
their  way  to  the  East  Indies,  and  it  was  made  the  object  of  the 
fleets  eastward  bound.  Cabrillo  placed  it  about  the  latitude  of  40° 
north  ;  it  lies,  in  fact,  a  few  minutes  northward  of  that  parallel.  Like 
all  other  Spanish  voyagers  of  that  time,  Cabrillo  missed  the  remark 
able  Bay  of  San  Francisco,  the  entrance  to  which  is  not  easily 
discerned.  Near  its  parallel  he  described  some  hills  covered  with  trees, 
which  he  called  the  Point  of  San  Martin. 

In  the  next  year  Juan  Rodriguez  repeated  this  voyage,  by  sail 
ing  as  far  as^Cape/Mendocino ;  but  it  was  reserved  for  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  the  great  English  seaman,  to  discover  a  seaport  in  California. 
He  spent  some  weeks  on  shore,  and  took  possession  in  the  name  of 
Queen  Elizabeth.  He  was  engaged  in  his  celebrated  voyage  round 
the  world.  With  his  little  fleet,  consisting  of  the  Pelican  of  one  hun 
dred  tons,  the  Elizabeth  and  the 
Marigold  each  of  eighty,  Drake 
had  passed  the  Straits  of  Ma 
gellan,  and  entered  the  Pacific 
Ocean  on  the  6th  of  Septem 
ber,  1578.  On  the  30th,  he  lost 
sight  of  the  Marigold  in  a  gale, 
and  never  saw  her  again.  On 
the  8th  of  October,  the  Eliza 
beth  deserted  him  ;  and  he  was 
left  to  pursue  his  voyage  of  ad 
venture  and  discovery  in  the 
Pelican  alone.  He  was  for  the 
rest  of  that  year  and  the  begin 
ning  of  1579  the  terror  of  the 
Spanish  ports  in  the  South  Seas. 
Having  left  the  port  of  Gua- 
tulco  on  the  Mexican  coast,  on 
the  16th  of  April,  he  went  di 
rectly  to  sea,  and  having  first 
sailed  west  and  afterwards  north,  he  ran  as  far  north  as  the  parallel 
of  43°,  or,  according  to  other  accounts,  of  48°  north  latitude,  —  where 
they  were  ail  dismayed  by  exceeding  cold.  Six  men  could  hardly  do 
the  work  of  three,  sojitiff  was  the  rigging  from  ice,  and  this  as  late 
in  the  year  as  the  month  of  June.  On  the  5th,  tfeey  made  land,  and 
anchored  in  a  bay  much  exposed  to  winds  and  flaws,  and,  "  when  they 
ceased,  there  instantly  followed  thick  stinking  fogs,  which  nothing  but 
the  wind  could  remove."  If  this  land,  the  first  seen  by  Drake  on  the 


Sir  Francis  Drake. 


1579.] 


DRAKE   IN   CALIFORNIA. 


571 


as  one 


coast  north  of  Mexico,  were  indeed  under  the  parallel  of  42C 
account  implies,  it  is  the  shore  of  Pelican  Bay,  which  has    Drake  in 
been  rightly  named  from  his  ship,  at  the  line  which  divides  Callforma- 
Oregon  from  California.     But,  although  the  accounts  are  confused, 
Drake  seems  to  have  seen  the  coast  as  far  north  as  4ji°  30'  of  north 
latitude,  and  indeed  the  claim  was  made  that  he  saw  it  at  480.1     This 
latitude  corresponds  best  of  all  with  the  accounts  of  the  severe  cold.* 
But  Robert  Dudley,  a  son  of  the  Earl  of  Leicester,  himself  an  explorer, 
and  well  acquainted  with  the  survivors  of  these  voyages,  says  :  "  The 
reason  why  Drake  sought  and  found  the  port  of   New  Albion,  was 
that  having  passed  beyond  Cape  Mendocino  in  latitude  forty-two  and 
a  half,  in  seeking  for  water  as  far  as  forty-three  and  a  half,  he  found 
the  coast  so  cold  in  the  month  of  June  that  his  people  could  not  bear 
it."  2     Dudley  gives  the  same  latitudes  to  Drake's  discoveries  on  his 
map,  and  it  seems  probable   that   the  parallel   of   43°  30' 
marks  the  northern  limit  of  Drake's  discovery.     Discouraged  of  New  AI- 
by  the  cold,  Drake  ran  down  the  shore  toward  the  south 
east,  and  on  the  17th  of  June,  "  it  pleased  God  to  send  us  into  a  fair 
and  good  bay  with  good  wind  to  enter  the  same."     In  this  bay,  which 
he  called  the  Port 
of  New  Albion,  he 
lay  for  more  than 
a     month,    having 
landed     his     men, 
while    he     refitted 
his  vessel,  and  built 
a     little     fort     on 
shore. 

The  next  morn 
ing  after  their  ar 
rival  an  Indian  ap 
peared  in  a  canoe 
making  tokens  of 
respect  and  submission.  He  brought  with  him  a  little  basket  of 
rushes  filled  with  an  herb  called  tabak,  which  he  threw  into  Drake's 
boat.  Drake  tried  to  recompense  him,  but  in  vain,  —  he  took  noth 
ing  but  a  hat  thrown  into  the  water.  Then  and  afterwards,  the  ship's 
company  of  the  Peliean  thought  that  these  natives  reverenced  them 
as  gods.  Drake  proceeded  to  land  his  stores,  by  way  of  preparation 
for  repairing  his  ship.  As  he  landed,  a  large  company  of  the  Indians 

1  Humboldt  evidently  thought  so.     See  Humboldt's  New  Spain,  ii.  337,  et  sefj. 

2  Early  maps,  and  a  note  on  Robert  Dudley  in  The  Proceedings  of  the  Am.  Antirj.  Soc. 
Oct.  21,  1873. 


Drake's  Port  of  New  Albion. 


61-2 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


approached,  and,  to  the  end  of  his  sojourn,  the  most  friendly  relations 
were  maintained  between  them  and  the  Englishmen.  Drake  exerted 
himself,  probably  not  without  success,  to  remove  the  impression  that 
he  and  his  were  gods.  But  he  took  the  precaution  of  fortifying  his 
camp  with  care  against  too  eager  advances. 

On  the  26th  of  June,  the  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  strangers  hav- 

An  embassy  ing  been  widelv  dispersed,  a  greater  number  of  people  as- 

fromthein-  sembled,  among  them  the  king  himself,  a  man  of  goodly 

stature,  with  many  other  tall  and  warlike  men,  and  a  guard 

of  a  hundred  strong.     He  sent  two  messengers  in  advance,  to  say  that 

the  Hioh,  or  king,  was 
coming.  One  of  the  am 
bassadors  spoke  in  a  very 
low  tone,  and  the  other 


Drake  and  the   Indian   King. 

repeated  the  message  verbatim,  very  loud,  in  a  ceremony  which  lasted 
half  an  hour.  They  then  asked  for  a  present  in  token  of  friendship, 
which  Drake  gladly  gave.  On  their  return  to  the  king  he  and  his 
train  appeared  in  pomp.  In  front  of  him  marched  a  tall  man  with 
the  sceptre  or  mace  of  black  wood,  a  yard  and  a  half  long.  Upon  it 
hung  two  crowns,  one  larger  than  the  other,  with  three  long  chains  of 
bone.  Such  chains  were  regarded  as  marks  of  honor,  the  links  in  each 
were  almost  innumerable.  The  king  was  clothed  in  a  dress  of  rabbit 
skins, — this  being  a  distinction  which  the  others  might  not  claim. 
The  guard  were  dressed  in  other  skins.  The  great  body  of  the  people 


1579.] 


DRAKE'S   RECEPTION   BY  THE   INDIANS. 


573 


were  almost  naked.  Those  about  the  king's  person  wore  feathers  as 
a  sign  of  honor,  and  had  "  cawls  of  feathers  "  covered  with  a  down 
growing  on  an  herb,  exceeding  any  other  down  for  fineness,  and  TmTy 
to  be  used  bythose  around  the  king.  The  common  people  were  almost 
naked,  but  their  hair,  also,  was  tied  with  feathers,  arranged  in  a 
different  way.1 

Drake  received  them  cordially  but  with  precaution.  The  sceptre- 
bearer  and  another 
officer  then  spoke  for 
half  an  hour,  one  re 
peating  very  loudly 
what  the  other  said 
in  low  tones.  This 
ceremony  was  fol 
lowed  by  a  dance, 
in  which  the  women 
joined.  After  this 
they  asked  Drake  to 
sit  down,  and  the 
king  and  others  were 
then  understood  by 
the  Englishmen  to 
ask  him  "  to  become  "'wv"~ <***««  '  ••««  ^  •  "  "  '."-'- — 

the    kinff  and  JTOVer-  California   Indians  and  their   Summer   Huts      (From    Bartlett  ) 

nor  of  their  country,"  to  whom  they  were  most  willing  to  resign 
the  government  of  themselves  and  their  posterity  :  and  more  fully 
to  declare  their  meaning,  the  king,  singing  with  all  the  rest,  set  the 
crown  upon  Drake's  head,  and  enriched  his  neck  with  all  their  chains. 
They  saluted  him  by  the  title  of  Hioh,  and  in  a  song  and  dance  con 
gratulated  themselves  that  now  he  was  their  king  and  patron  they 
were  the  happiest  people  in  the  world. 

Drake  having  half  a  continent  offered  him  in  this  manner,  thought 
best  to  accept  it,  not  for  himself,  but  for  his  queen.     "  In 
the  name  and  for  the  use  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  he  took  the  king  by  the 
Sceptre,  Crown  and  Dignity  of  that  Land  upon  him,  wishing 
that  the  riches  and  Treasures  thereof,  wherein  the  upper  parts  abound, 
might  be  as  easily  transported  to  England  as  he  had  obtained  the 
sovereignty  thereof."    When  the  ceremony  was  finished,  the  common 

1  La  Pcrouse  and  Langsdorff  observed  their  fondness  for  feathers,  as  late  as  the  end  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  "  The  feathers  are  twisted  together  into  a  sort  of  ropes,  and  then 
these  are  tied  close  together,  so  as  to  have  a  feathery  surface  on  both  sides."  Langsdorff 
counted  in  one  feather  bandeau  four  hundred  and  fifty  tail-feathers  of  the  golden-winged 
woodpecker.  Each  woodpecker  furnishes  but  two  feathers.  —  See  Forbes's  California, 
p.  183. 


SPANISH    COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


Expedition 
into  the 
interior. 


people  eagerly  offered  sacrifices  to  the  strangers  with  shrieks  and 
weeping,  tearing  the  flesh  from  their  faces  with  their  nails.  The 
English  vainly  attempted  to  dissuade  them,  by  lifting  their  hands  and 
eyes  to  heaven.  During  their  stay  the  people  generally  brought  sac 
rifices  every  third  day,  till  they  at  last  understood  how  much  the 
English  were  displeased  by  them. 

As  soon  as  the  English  had  finished  the  repairs  upon  their  ship, 
Drake  and  some  of  his  company  made  a  journey  into  the  in 
terior.    He  found  the  Indians  living  in  villages.    The  houses 
were  made  by  digging  round  holes  in  the  earth,  covered  by 
poles  of  wood,  which  met  in  the  centre  "  like  a  spired  steeple,"  the 

whole  being  covered 
with  earth.  The  door 
"  made  slopous  like 
the  scuttle  of  a  ship  " 
was  also  the  chim 
ney.1  The  people 
slept  in  these  houses 
on  rushes  on  the 
ground,  around  a  fire 
in  the  middle.  The 
country  was  very  dif 
ferent  from  the  bar 
ren  sea- shore.  It  was 
fruitful,  and  fur 
nished  with  all  nec 
essaries.  The  ad 
venturers  saw  thou- 
^^^  sands  of  deer  in  a 
herd,  and  were  much 
interested  by  the  ground 
squirrel,  which  they  describe 
as  a  peculiar  "  coney."  The 
5  whole  country  was  a  warren 
Wl  of  them.  Their  bodies  were 
as  big  as  the  Barbary  coneys, 
their  heads  as  the  heads  of  the 
English,  the  feet  like  the  feet 
of  a  want,  and  the  tail  long 
like  that  of  a  rat.  The  coney  had  on  each  side  of  the  chin  a  bag 
into  which  to  gather  such  food  as  he  did  not  need  to  eat. 

Returning  to  his  port,  Drake  took  possession  of  the  country  in  the 
1  Captain  Beechey  found  similar  houses  as  late  as  1827. 


Drake's    Departure. 


1579.]  LOCALITY   OF   DRAKE'S   DISCOVERIES.  575 

name  of  Queen  Elizabeth.  He  erected  a  monument  which  was,  like 
so  many  other  monuments  of  possession,  only  a  wooden  post  with  a 
copper  plate  upon  it.  On  this  he  inscribed  an  assertion  of  the  right 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  and  her  successors  to  that  kingdom,  with  the 
time  of  his  own  arrival,  and  a  statement  of  the  free  resignation  of  the 
country  by  the  king  and  people  into  her  hands.  Her  picture  and 
arms,  and  Drake's  arms,  were  also  engraved  on  this  remarkable  plate,  f 
which  must  have  done  credit  to  the  amateur  engraver  from  the  crew 
of  the  Pelican. . 

After  this  ceremony  of  possession,  the  ship  sailed  for  the  Moluc 
cas,  to  the  great  grief  of  the  native  king  and  his  followers,   ^^^  de_ 
who  lighted  fires  on  the  cliffs  as  if  to  cheer  them  on  their  Parture- 
way. 

It  is  a  curious  question,  not  yet  decided  by  geographers,  what  was  the 
bay  where  Sir  Francis  Drake  repaired  his  ship,  and  on  the 
shore  of  which  he  encamped  and  took  possession.     The  va-  D»ke-sy  ° ,- ' 
rious  accounts  differ  about  the  highest  north  latitude  attained     ay' 
by  Drake,  but  when  driven  back  by  cold  weather  he  came  south,  they 
agree  "  it  was  within  thirty-eight  degrees  toward  the  line."      "  In 
which  height  it  pleased  God  to  send  us  into  a  fair  and  good  bay  with 
good  wind  to  enter  the  same."     Was  this  bay  the  Bay  of  San  Fran 
cisco,  of  which  the  opening,  by  the  Golden  Gate,  is  in  37°  49'  N. 
latitude,  or  is  it  the  open  bay  just  above  this,  marked  on  the  maps 
as  Sir  Francis  Drake's  Bay,  or  is  it  Bodega  Bay,  where  the  latitude  of 
the  anchorage  is  38°  19'  ? J     Within  so  narrow  a  range  it  would  be 
idle  to  infer  anything  from  Drake's  general  statement  that  the  good 
bay  which  God  led  him  into  was  in  38°.     Either  of  them  is  near 
enough  to  meet  that  definition. 

The  maps  annexed  will  enable  the  reader  to  understand  this  diffi 
culty.  The  more  modern  one  represents  the  coast  substantially  as  it 
has  been  drawn  by  the  accurate  hydrographers  of  our  own  time.  The 
other  was  drawn  early  in  the  seventeenth  century  by  Robert  Dudley, 
son  of  the  great  Earl  of  Leicester,  himself  a  navigator  and  the  son-in- 
law  of  Cavendish,  one  of  the  explorers  of  the  South  Seas.  Drake's 
port  of  New  Albion  will  be  found  on  this,  so  drawn  as  to  represent 
sufficiently  well  the  double  bay  of  San  Francisco.  If  this  were  the 
only  authority  it  would  probably  be  granted  that  Drake's  port  was 
San  Francisco  Bay.  But  it  is  quite  certain  that  the  Spaniards,  who 
eagerly  tried  to  rediscover  the  port,  with  this  map  in  their  possession, 
did  not  succeed  until  near  two  hundred  years  after.  Long  before 
they  did  discover  it,  they  were  seeking  for  it,  calling  it  the  Bay  of 
San  Francisco — that  name  probably  having  been  taken  from  no  less  a 
1  These  latitudes  are  those  of  Captain  Beechey's  survey. 


576 


SPANISH   COLONIZATION. 


[CHAP.  XXIII. 


saint  than  the  heretic,  Sir  Francis  Drake.    In  1769,  a  land  party  dis 
covered  the  great  bay  which  runs  south  from  the  entrance,  now  called 

the  Golden  Gate.  But  it  was  not  until 
1776  that  this  inland  sea  was  connected 
by  the  Spaniards  with  the  ocean. 

It  is  urged  on  the  one  side,  that  Sir 
Francis  Drake  would  never  have  called 
"  Jack's  Bay,"  which  is  the  Sir  Fran 
cis  Drake's  bay  of  the  maps,  "  a  fair 
and  good  bay,"  nor  thanked  God  as 
for  a  special  providence  for  the  wind 
which  took  him  into  that  open  road 
stead,  which  under  the  circumstances, 
he  could  hardly  have  kept  out  of.  If 
indeed,  he  did  land,  and  unload  his  ship 
there,  repair  her,  and  take  in  his  cargo 
again,  lying  for  five  weeks  there,  he  is 
the  last  shipmaster  who  has  done  so. 
Having  done  so,  that  he  should  have 
drawn  the  bottle-shaped  bay,  which 
appears  on  the  charts  of  his  time,  seems 
impossible.  For  such  reasons,  high 
authority1  concedes  that  he  entered 
the  Golden  Gate  and  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco,  now  known  by  that  name. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  urged  that 
the  physical  distinctions  of  the  Golden  Gate  and  the  present  San 
Francisco  Bay  are  so  marked  that  Drake  or  his  historian 
must  have  said  more  of  them :  that  "  fair  and  good  bay," 
is  not  language  as  strong  as  should  be  used  of  that  matchless  harbor, 
and  that  once  discovered,  it  could  never  be  forgotten.  The  weight 
of  California!!  opinion  at  this  time  seems  to  be  that  Sir  Francis 
Drake  never  entered  the  Golden  Gate.  In  one  of  the  early  narra 
tives  of  his  voyage,  in  Hondius's  voyages,  the  annexed  map  of  the 
bay,  unfortunately  with  no  scale,  is  given  in  the  margin.  It  bears 
this  inscription  in  very  bad  Latin  :  "  The  inhabitants  by  terrible 
frequent  laceration  of  their  bodies  deprecate  the  departure  of  Drake, 
now  twice  crowned,  from  this  harbour  of  Albion."  But  it  is  clear 
enough,  from  an  examination  of  the  copy  of  a  small  part  of  the  Bay 
of  San  Francisco,  from  Captain  Beechey's  survey,  that  the  draughts 
man  of  Hondius's2  map,  had  no  knowledge  of  that  great  estuary. 

1  So  Davidson  in  the  Coast  Pilot,  and  Mr.  Greenhow. 

8  For  the  copy  of  Hondius's  very  rare  map,  we  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Charles  Deane. 


Map  of  a  Part  of  the  California  Coast. 


Opinions  of 
geographers. 


1579.] 


LOCALITY    OF    DRAKE'S   DISCOVERIES. 


577 


It  is  equally  sure,  however,  that  his  map  represents  no  other  bay  on 
the  coast,  and  that  it  must,  therefore,  be  taken  as  merely  imaginary. 

Dudley  also  says  that 
Drake  found  many  wild 
horses  at  the  northward, 
—  at  which  he  wondered, 
because  the  Spaniards  had 
never  found  horses  in 
America.  It  is  customary 
to  account  for  the  immense 
herds  of  American  horses 
on  the  assumption  that  the 
Spaniards  introduced 
them.  Drake's  visit,  how- 

tj   £WU    (.vi  ffVfUtM     £.  Ul  ? 

i  coZ<feQfWygn  bis,  ccronalt, 


Hondius's  Map  of  Drake's  Bay. 


ever,  to  Port  New  Albion 
was  but  thirty-eight  yeai's 
after  Coronado's  visit  to 
Cibola,  —  which,  as  we  now  know,  was  at  least  five  hundred  miles 
away.  It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  a  few  stray  horses  from  Coro 
nado's  troop,  should,  in  so  few  years,  have  multiplied  into  large  herds 
observed  by  Drake  on  the  distant  seaboard  of  Oregon.  Coronado  had 
but  few  horses,  would  have  had  fewer  brood  mares,  and  would  have 
been  apt  to  mention  any  loss  of  a  large  number  of  auxiliaries  so 
essential. 


Spanish  Coat  of  Arms  on  the  St.  Augustin3  Fort 


•    37 


CHAPTER  XXIV. 

SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION. 

FATHER  AUGUSTIN  RUYZ.  —  Rio  DEL  NORTE.  —  CUNAMES.  —  ACOMA.  —  ZUNI  OR  Ci- 
r.oi.v. — JUAN  DE  ONATE. —  EL  PASO.  —  "EL  MORO." — INSCRIPTIONS.  —  VISCAINO. 
—  EUSEBIO  FRANCISCO  KINO.  —  SALVATIERRA. —  ARIZONA.  —  PABLO  QUIHUE. — 
FATHER  AUGDSTIN  DE  CAMPOS. —  EXPULSION  OF  THE  JESUITS.  —  LA  SALLE. — 
DE  LEON.  —  ST.  DENIS.  —  DON  MARTIN  D'ALARCORNE.  —  TEXAS. 

Two  years  after  Drake's  departure  a  land  expedition  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Sierra  brought  the  lost  cities  of  Cibola  to  light  again. 

In  the  year  1581,  the  Franciscan  Father,  Augustin  Ruyz,  inter- 
Expedition  ested  by  the  report  of  some  Conchos  Indians,  undertook  an 
of  Ruyz.  expedition  northward,  which  resulted  in  the  re-discovery  of 
Quivira  and  some  certainty  as  to  the  location  of  the  Cibola  of  Coro- 
nado.  Eager  to  save  souls,  Ruyz  obtained  leave  to  travel  thither,  and 
started  with  two  brethren  of  his  order,  and  eight  soldiers.  Leaving 
the  mines  of  Santa  Barbara  in  Northern  Mexico,  in  the  southern  part 
of  the  present  province  of  Chihuahua,  four  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
from  the  capital,  they  began  their  journey  northward  ;  but  one  of 
the  friars  having  been  killed  by  Indians,  the  soldiers  deserted  the 
others,  and  left  them  to  go  forward  alone.  When  at  Santa  Barbara 
the  soldiers  reported  the  plight  in  which  they  had  left  these  holy 
men,  a  spirited  gentleman  of  St.  Bartholomew,  a  station  in  the  neigh 
borhood,  named  Antonio  de  Espejo,  raised  a  company  for  their  relief, 
journey  of  an(^  started,  in  November,  1582,  with  a  caravan  of  one  hun- 
Bspejo.  dred  and  fifteen  horses  and  mules  and  some  Indian  guides. 
They  travelled  northward  through  various  tribes,  and  soon  struck  the 
Conchos  River,  which  flows  into  the  Rio  del  Norte.  Here  they  found 
natives  who  seemed  to  have  some  knowledge  of  the  symbols  of  Chris 
tian  faith,  and  when  asked  how  they  obtained  it,  they  said  that  three 
Christians  and  a  negro  had  passed  that  way,  and  had  instructed  them. 

The  Spaniards  believed  these  missionaries  to  have  been  Cabeca  de 
Vaca,  Dorantes,  and  Castillo  Maldonado,  with  their  negro  whose  es 
cape  from  the  wreck  of  Narvaez's  party  has  been  described.1  Con- 

1  Vol.  i.,  p.  156. 


1582.]     ESPEJO   IN   THE   VALLEY   OF   THE   RIO   DEL  NORTE.     579 

tinuing  northward,  the  explorers  met  men,  willing  to  trade  with  them, 
who  wore  cotton  garments,  made  of  stuffs  striped  with  white  and 
blue.1  They  could  only  converse  with  them  by  signs.  But  they  saw 
among  them  the  precious  metals ;  they  learned  that  these  were  ob 
tained  from  a  place  at  five  days'  journey  westward.  After  travelling 
together  for  some  days,  —  probably  along  the  foot  of  the  Organ 
Mountains  —  they  found  a  Concho  Indian  whose  language  they  could 


The  Organ  Mountains,  near  El  Paso. 

in  part  understand.  He  told  them  that  fifteen  days  westward  there 
was  a  large  lake,  and  that,  after  passing  this,  they  would  come  to 
large  towns  with  houses  of  three  or  four  stories  high,  whose  inhab 
itants  were  well  clothed.  He  even  offered  to  conduct  them  thither. 
The  adventurers  were  not  able  to  follow  his  directions,  because  they 
were  still  pressing  to  the  north  in  pursuit  of  the  two  priests  whom 
they  hoped  to  succor. 

Travelling  up  the  valley  of  the  Rio  del  Norte  they  passed  for  fifteen 
days  together  a  forest  of  pines,  "  such  as  men  see  in  Cas- 

..,      .,       . .,  .  .     ,      ,  .  The  Valley 

tile,    without  meeting  any  inhabitants.     Eighty  leagues  far-  of  the  Rio 

,,         ,1  i-Li        •«  •    i     ?•  •       -,    del  Norte. 

tner  they  came  to  a  little  village,  whose  inhabitants  surprised 
them  by  the  skill  with  which  they  tanned  their  leather,  which  was 
of  as  fine  quality  as  that  of  Flanders.     After  two  days'  stay  with 
them,  still  following  the  river,  of  which  they  found  both  banks  cov- 

1  The  impression  of  later  travellers  is  that  this  cloth  was  that  made  from  the  maguey 
fibre. 


580     SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

ered  with  poplars,  varied  sometimes  by  nut  trees  and  vines,  a  journey 

of  two  days  brought  them  to  villages  containing  ten  thousand  persons, 

where   they  were  well  received.     The  houses  were  well  built,  four 

stories  high,  with  good  chambers,  most  of  them  having  fire-places 

for  winter.     The  people  were  well  dressed  in  cotton  and  leather,  with 

good  shoes  and  boots,  such  as  the  Spaniards  had  not  seen  among  the 

natives  before.     To  this  country  they  gave  the  name  of  New  Mexico. 

After  remaining  with  them  for  four  days  the  travellers  went  on  to 

another  tribe  called  the  Tiguas,  of  sixteen  towns.     Here  it 

The  Tiguas. 

was  that  the  missionary  had  been  killed,  and  here  in  a  town 
named  Poala,  they  obtained  news  of  the  murder  of  th,e  two  other 
fathers  whom  they  were  seeking,  Lopez  and  Ruyz.  The  Indians  see 
ing  the  interest  taken  in  these  men  by  so  large  a  company,  fled  from 
their  houses  and  could  not  be  persuaded  to  return.  Espejo  deter 
mined  to  establish  a  camp  here,  and  with  only  twelve  companions  to 
prosecute  the  further  discovery.  In  two  days  more  he  came  to  a 
country  of  eleven  towns,  of  which  the  natives  said  the  population  was 
more  than  forty  thousand.  Espejo  believed  that  this  country  was 
next  to  the  famous  Cibola.  He  was  cordially  received  and  found  the 
appearance  of  rich  mines,  and  observed  that,  in  the  houses  where  the 
idols  were,  there  were  pieces  of  silver.  After  this  expedition  he  re 
turned  to  his  camp.  Here  he  obtained  news  of  the  province  of  the 

Quires,  six  leagues  from  the  Del  Norte.     He  visited  them, 

The  Quires. 

and  found  five  toAvns,  with  a  population  of  fifteen  thousand 
people.  The  Spaniards  were  pleased  to  find  a  pye  in  a  cage,  "  as 
you  may  see  in  Castile,"  and  umbrellas,  like  those  of  China,  on  which 
were  painted  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  At  this  point  Espejo  fixed  his 
latitude  and  found  it  37^°  north.  If  this  observation  were  correct,  he 
was  in  the  limits  of  the  present  State  of  Colorado ;  but  this  must  have 
been  an  error  of  more  than  two  degrees. 

Fourteen   leagues  further  he  found   the  Cunames,  who   had   five 

towns,  with  a  population  of  twenty  thousand  people.  Their 
names,  the  houses  were  built  of  stone  and  lime  and  were  the  best  he 

Amejes,  and    ,  _.,  ,  » 

the  town  of  had  seen.  They  also  had  the  precious  metals.  Next  to 
them  were  the  Amejes,  thirty  thousand  in  number ;  fifteen 
leagues  westward,  the  travellers  found  the  town  of  Acoma,  inhabited 
by  six  thousand  people.  This  town  is  still  in  existence,  probably  with 
the  same  race  of  inhabitants.  It  was  on  a  high  cliff,  which  has  more 
than  fifty  platforms  in  height,  and  could  only  be  ascended  by  steps 
cut  out  of  the  rock  itself.  At  this  the  Spaniards  greatly  wondered. 
All  the  water  was  in  cisterns.  The  people  met  the  Spaniards  cor 
dially  and  brought  them  presents  of  clothes.  Their  arable  land  was 
two  leagues  away  and  was  watered  by  artificial  means  from  a  little 


1582.] 


ESPEJO'S  EXPLORATIONS. 


581 


river  in  the  neighborhood.     Here  the  Spaniards  spent  three  days,  and 
were  entertained  by  a  solemn  ball. 

This  curious  spot  is  perfectly  known.  Similar  cave  dwellings  in 
other  regions  have  been  identified,  described,  and  pictured  by  the 
recent  surveying  parties  of  the  United  States  government.  The  de 
scription  of  Acoma  is  so  distinct  that  it  is  clear  that  at  some  point 
Espejo  must  have  left  a  little  while  before  what  we  call  the  Del 
Norte,  and  come  on  the  waters  of  the  Puerco  River.1 

Twenty-four  leagues  further  west,  Espejo  and  his  men  came  to  the 
province  known  as  Zimi  by  the  natives,  and  Cibola  by  the 
Spaniards,  which  Coronado  had  entered  half  a  century  before  reaches  ci- 
from  the  Gulf  of  California.    They  found  the  crosses  planted 
by  him  and  other  tokens  of  his  presence,  among  others  three  baptized 


Indians,  who  served  them  as  interpreters.  These  men  apprised  them 
of  a  great  lake  sixty  days  further  on,  where  were  great  cities  with 
much  gold.  The  province  of  Zuni  still  retains  its  name.  The  Zuni 

1  Judge  Cozzens  thus  describes  Acoma  in  1860  :  "It  stands  upon  the  top  of  a  rock  at 
least  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  above  the  surrounding  plain.  The  Pueblo  can  only  be 
reached  by  means  of  a  staircase  containing  three  hundred  and  seventy-five  steps,  cut  in  the 
solid  rock.  At  the  upper  end  of  this  is  a  ladder  eighteen  feet  long,  made  from  the  trunk 
of  a  tree,  in  which  notches  have  been  cut  for  the  feet."  —  Tlie  Marvellous  Country,  p.  287. 

.A  narrative  by  Mr.  Holmes  of  similar  residences  now  in  ruins,  further  west,  describes 
such  edifices  where  Spanish  civilization  has  not  followed  on  that  of  the  natives.  The  rem 
nant  of  the  cave  dwellings  may  still  be  traced.  The  openings  are  arched  irregularly 
above,  in  a  soft  and  friable  shale,  a  hard  stratum  serving  as  a  floor.  In  many  instances, 
this  gave  a  platform  by  which  the  inhabitants  passed  from  one  house  to  another.  Frag 
ments  of  mortar  still  show  that  the  houses  were  plastered.  They  probably  had  doors  and 
windows. 

A  drawing  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Holmes,  who  visited  a  series  on  the  San  Juan,  in  1875,  shows 
their  appearance  at  that  time.  In  another  drawing,  Mr.  Holmes  gives  his  impression  of 
their  appearance  when  occupied,  as  Espejo  may  have  seen  them. 


682     SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

people  still  live  there,  and  maintain  at  their  altars  the  worship  of  the 
days  of  Espejo. 

Espejo  was  disposed  to  go  still  farther  on  his  adventures.  But, 
finding  the  religious  men  and  most  of  the  party  unwilling,  he  went  on 
with  nine  soldiers  only.  After  travelling  twenty-eight  leagues,  they 
came  to  the  city  Zaguato.  After  some  suspicion,  they  were  hospita 
bly  welcomed.  Espejo,  after  a  few  days'  stay,  went  with  five  compan 
ions  forty-five  leagues  farther.  Here  he  found  the  mines  of  which  he 


Map  of  California,  Arizona,  and  New  Mexico. 

had  been  told.  With  his  own  hand  he  took  ores  which  contained  a 
great  quantity  of  silver,  of  which  he  could  see  that  the  vein  was 
very  large.  The  Indians  of  the  neighborhood  received  him  kindly. 
They  told  him  that  on  the  other  side  of  their  mountains  was  a  river 
eight  leagues  wide.  They  showed  by  signs  that  it  flowed  to  the 
Northern  Ocean,  and  on  its  banks  the  towns  were  so  large  and  so 
many  that  their  own  were  nothing  but  hamlets  in  comparison.  With 
this  intelligence  Espejo  returned  to  Zuni,  or  Cibola.  Unfortunately 
the  account  does  not  tell  in  what  direction  Espejo  travelled  from  the 
site  of  the  Zuni.  Their  pueblos  are  placed  by  the  surveyors  of  the 
United  States  government  about  latitude  35°  north,  and  longitude 


OCCUPATION   OF  NEW  MEXICO.  583 

109°  west.1  The  city  of  Zaguato,  twenty-eight  leagues  distant,  is 
not  easily  identified.  The  interesting  tribe  of  Moquis  are  now  at 
about  that  distance  to  the  northwest  of  the  Zuni. 

AVhen  Espejo  rejoined  his  party  the  greater  part  of  his  people  deter 
mined  to  return  to  Santa  Barbara.  But  he  himself,  with 
eight  soldiers,  undertook  the  further  exploration  of  the  River  pioraUons  of 
del  Norte.  Having  returned  to  the  Quires,  he  found,  twelve 
leagues  west  of  them,  the  Hubates,  twenty-five  thousand  in  number, 
who  received  him  kindly.  Their  houses  also  were  four  or  five  stories 
high,  and  their  hills  covered  with  pine  and  cedar.  Next  to  this  tribe 
were  the  Tamos,  who  were  not  friendly  ;  and  Espejo,  rather  than 
risk  a  conflict  with  them,  returned  home  by  another  valley,  of  a  river 
which  he  called  the  River  of  Cows,  so  many  did  he  find  there.  This 
stream  brought  him  to  the  Conchos  River,  by  which  he  returned  to 
the  valley  of  St.  Bartholomew,  whence  he  had  departed.  He  found 
that  the  other  part  of  his  party  had  preceded  him.  The  expedition 
had  lasted  nearly  two  years.2 

The  interest  excited  in  Spain  by  these  discoveries  must  have  been 
very  great,  although  with  the  policy  which  then  prevailed 
at  Madrid,  no  official  publication  was  made  of  them.  It  these  aiscov- 
seems  to  be  by  accident  that  the  narrative  of  Espejo  was  ceived  in 
printed  in  connection  with  the  history  of  China,  from  which 
the  vigilance  of  Hakluyt  at  once  reproduced  it  for  English  readers. 
Orders  were  given  from  Madrid  that  New  Mexico  should  be  occupied, 
and  as  early  as  1594  we  have  the  thanks  of  the  king  to  the  company 
of  Jesuits  for  their  success  in  planting  missions  there.  In  that  year  it 
was  attached  to  the  ecclesiastical  charge  of  Father  Martin  Pelez  of 
,  Cinaloa,  the  most  northerly  station  till  then  held,  and  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Sierra.  In  1595,  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico,  the  Count  of 
Monterey,  sent  Juan  de  Onate  into  New  Mexico,  and  under  his  di 
rections  colonies  were  planted  in  the  valley  df  the  Rio  Grande.3  One 
of  Onate's  settlements  was  near  Santa  F6,  which  may  probably,  there 
fore,  claim  to  be  settled  before  Jamestown,  and  to  be,  after  St.  Au 
gustine,  the  oldest  town  built  by  whites  in  the  United  States.  Acoma 
is  an  older  town.  The  original  settlement  by  Onate  was  made  with 

1  It  is  in  section  77  of  the  Hayden  Survey. 

2  This  narrative  is  preserved  by  Gonzales  de  Mendoza,  the  author  of  the  "  History  of 
China"  and  the  "Itinerary  to  the  New- World."     It  is  perhaps  embellished  by  exaggera 
tions.     But  it  carries  with  it,  —  in  many  of  the  local  descriptions  which  were  not  verified 
for  nearly  three  centuries  by  other  narrators,  — evidence  that  Espejo  went  over  the  ground 
which  he  described.     He  may  be  considered,  therefore,  as  the  discoverer  of  New  Mexico, 
and  the  valley  of  the  Gila,  above  the  points  where  it  had  been  explored  by  Coronado.     It 
is  probable  that  in  the  word  Tiguas  we  have  the  origin  of  the  name  Texas,  which  next 
appears  in  the  form  Latekas,  used  by  La  Harpe. 

3  Allegre,  Hist.  Jesuits,  vol.  i.,  p.  3Z5.    Mexican  edition  of  1842. 


584    SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 


one  hundred  soldiers  and  five  hundred  settlers,  and  it  is  not  proba 
ble  that  the  establishments  in  New  Mexico  largely  exceeded  these 
numbers  for  a  century.  A  bloody  massacre  by  the  Indians  in  1640  is 
alluded  to  by  the  Jesuit  historians,  and  in  1680,  by  a  successful  union 
of  the  pueblos,  they  drove  all  the  Spaniards  from  the  upper  river  and 
compelled  them  to  take  refuge  in  El  Paso.  Successive  expeditions 
against  the  Indians  from  that  point  proved  unsuccessful  till  1692, 
when  Diego  de  Bargas  regained  possession  of  the  valley  for  the 
Spanish  garrisons.1  The  town  of  El  Paso,  on  the  Mexican  side  of 
the  frontier  of  the  United  States,  where  the  western  boundary  de 
termined  by  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  begins,,  was  proba 
bly  founded  by  Ofiate. 
The  Piro  Indians  had 
a  village  called  Sinecu, 
which  still  exists  with 
in  the  precincts  of  the 
town.  From  the  mis 
sionary  establishment 
there,  it  is  probable 

!\'\^  BP-V      W*fc       Pat  the  t0wn  °TiEl 

M  «P^  V^  fiE%  Paso  sprung.  The 
//  >"  »-«M«  "  ^fe^  signs  of  Moorish  archi 
tecture  may  be  still 
noticed  in  the  public 
buildings  of  El  Paso, 
as  in  other  mission 
buildings  of  Mexican 
or  Spanish  origin  in  that  region ;  and  the  venerable  church  itself  is 
supposed  by  the  worshippers  to  have  been  built  in  the  earlier  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century. 

From  this  time,  with  various  reverses,  the  valley  of  the  Rio  Grande 
inscription  was  neM  by  Spanish  priests  and  officials,  with  some  set 
tlers.  Inscription  Rock,  a  remarkable  rock  on  the  west 
side  of  the  Sierra  Madre,  not  far  from  the  pueblo  of  Acoma,  records, 
not  insufficiently,  the  history  of  this  outlying  province,  in  the  auto 
graphs,  or  autoglyphs,  of  the  men  who  belonged  to  the  time.  For 
two  hundred  and  ten  feet  of  its  height  this  rock  has  a  natiu*al  pol 
ish.  At  a  distance  it  perfectly  resembles  a  Moorish  castle,  so  that 
the  Spaniards  called  it  "  El  Moro."  Indians  and  Spaniards  have 
used  it  as  a  monument  rock ;  and  when  Lieut.  Simpson  saw  it  in 

1  The  dates  given  by  Pike,  Allegre,  and  Venegas  are  confused,  but  those  in  the  text 
are  furnished  for  Lieutenant  Simpson  by  Don  Donaciano  Vigil,  Secretary  ^f  State  for 
New  Mexico,  and  may  probably  be  relied  upon. 


Inscription    Rock. 


1603.]  THE   SEARCH   FOR  "PUERTO   FRANCISCO."  585 

1849,  he  found  a  large  number  of  inscriptions  still  visible.  Some 
were  mere  savage  carvings  of  hands  or  animals,  but  many  were  in 
Spanish  or  a  sort  of  Latin.1 

On  the  western  coast,  the  news  of  Drake's  discovery  stimulated  the 
court  of  Spain  to  make  some  new  efforts  to  save  the  land,   Action  of 
whose  natives  had  given  it  to  the  heretic  queen.     Under  the  ^gaSuo 
king's  own  orders  Viscaino,  an  officer  of  ability,  was  again  vucl'i™'*' 
despatched  on  the  survey  of  the  coasts  of  California.     After  vo>ase 
one  voyage  on  the  gulf,  which  resulted  in  disaster,  he  sailed  from 
Acapulco  for  a  second  on  the  5th  of  May,  1602,  and  went  as  far  as 
the  parallel  of  42°  north.     He  rediscovered  the  harbors  of  San  Diego 
and  Monterey,  and  gave  to  them  those  names.     He  reported  that  the 
natives  on  the  coast  were  docile,  clothed  with  the  skins  of  sea-wolves, 
—  but  with  abundance  of  hemp,  flax,  and  cotton.     The  Indians  all 
told  him,  he  said,  that  in  the  inland  were  large  towns,  silver,  and  gold. 
Viscaino's  manuscripts  have  not  been  brought  to  light.     His  second 
voyage  was  not  finished  until  1603.     It  appears  that  his  instructions 
were  to  put  into  "  Puerto  Francisco,"  and  see  if  anything  was  to  be 
found  of  the  ship  San  Augustin,  which  in  1595,  had  been  sent  from 
the  Philippine  Islands  to  survey  that  coast,  and  had  been  lost  there. 

1  With  praiseworthy  accuracy  Lieutenant  Simpson  copied  these  curious  records,  and  in 
his  Report  fac-similes  of  them  were  published.  There  are  thirty-eight  inscriptions  in  his 
list,  ranging  from  the  16th  day  of  April,  1606,  when  some  officer  "  passed  this  place  with 
despatches,"  down  to  1836.  It  seems  to  have  become  a  custom  with  the  Spanish  officers 
to  leave  here  a  brief  account  of  their  mission.  As  the  other  records  of  New  Mexico  before 
1680  were  burned  by  the  Indians  in  that  year,  the  earlier  of  these  inscriptions  supply 
names  and  dates  not  elsewhere  accessible.  The  character  of  them  may  be  understood  from 
such  examples  as  these : 

"Passed  this  place  with  despatches — 16th  day  of  April,  1606." 

"  J.  Apaulla,  1619." 

"Bartolome  Narsso,  Governor  and  Captain  General  of  the  provinces  of  New  Mexico,  for 
our  Lord,  the  King,  passed  by  this  place  on  his  return  from  the  pueblo  of  Zuni,  on  the  29th 
of  July,  of  the  year  1620,  and  put  them,  in  peace  at  their  petition,  asking  the  favor  to 
become  subjects  of  His  Majesty ;  and  anew  they  gave  obedience.  All  which  they  did  with 
free  consent,  knowing  it  prudent,  as  well  as  very  Christian. 

"  To  so  distinguished  and  gallant  a  soldier,  indomitable  and  famed,  we  love " 

(The  rest  of  this  inscription  is  illegible.) 

"  Here  passed  General  Don  Diego  de  Bargas  to  conquer  Santa  Fe  for  the  royal  crown, 
New  Mexico,  at  his  own  cost,  in  the  year  1692." 

Judge  Cozzens,  in  1860,  found  and  copied  an  earlier  inscription:  "Don  Joseph  de  Ba- 
zemzalles.  1526."  Judge  Cozzens  rightly  says,  that  such  an  inscription  could  only  be 
truly  carved  by  one  of  the  lost  officers  whom  Cortez  sent  north  in  a  quest  for  the  lands  of 
silver.  Of  that  band  of  twenty  men  there  is  no  history  since  they  left  Cortez,  excepting 
on  this  silent  stone.  „ 

But,  among  Lieutenant  Simpson's  inscriptions,  there  appears,  perfectly  distinct,  on 
another  part  of  the  rock,  "  For  aqui  pazo  el  Alferez  Dn  Joseph  de  Payba  Basconzelos  el 
ano  que  tugo  el  Canildo  del  Reyno  a  su  costa  a  18  de  feb°  de  1726  Anos."  Tugo  is  some 
misspelling  of  the  stone-cutter,  —  but  the  meaning  is  that  this  officer,  whose  rank  was 
that  of  lieutenant,  passed  here  in  an  expedition  undertaken  at  cost  of  the  council  of  the 
kingdom. 


586    SPANISH    EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

She  was  under  the  direction  of  Sebastian  Rodriguez  Cermenon. 
Her  pilot,  Volanos,  was  chief  pilot  of  Viscaino's  squadron.  Having 
passed  the  latitude  of  Port  Francisco,  they  returned  to  look  for  it, 
and  anchored  under  La  Punta  de  los  Keys.  This  is  the  westerly 
point  of  "Jack's  Bay."  They  did  not  land,  and  Viscaino  having 
parted  from  his  tender,  continued  his  voyage  in  search  of  her.  He 
thus  lost  his  opportunity  of  discovering  the  great  Bay  of  San  Fran 
cisco.  He  ran  up  the  coast,  as  far  north  as  42°,  and  then,  because  his 
whole  company  were  sick  with  a  terrible  distemper,  they  returned  to 
Acapulco.  The  tender  persevered  as  far  as  43°.  Here  her  com- 


of 


Acapulco. 

mander  found  a  river  whose  banks  were  covered  with  ash  trees,  wil 
lows,  and  other  Spanish  trees.  But  he  had  passed  farther  than  his 
orders  directed,  and  he  returned  to  Acapulco  also.  No  such  river 
exists  in  that  latitude.  The  Columbia  is  as  far  north  as  48°. 

Philip  III.,  of  Spain,  or  some  minister  of  his,  on  the  reception  of 
^l^s  report,  issued  a  very  interesting  order,  of  the  greatest 
stringency,  that  the  search  for  a  harbor  should  be  renewed, 
and  that  Monterey  should  be  occupied.  But  the  fatality  of  inaction, 
which  governed  both  Mexico  and  Spain,  prevailed.  Viscaino  died  as 
he  was  preparing  for  the  expedition  ordered,  and  the  occupation  of 
Northern  California  was  reserved  to  another  century.  Men,  widely 
differing  from  those  who  discovered  California,  acting  under  another 
class  of  motives,  undertook  the  colonization  which  for  a  century  and 
a  half  had  been  neglected,  since  it  proved  that  she  had  no  cities  of 
gold  and  turquoises.  The  Spanish  court,  meanwhile,  had  changed  as 


1670.] 


MISSIONS   IN   CALIFORNIA   AND   ARIZONA. 


587 


much  as  the  adventurers  in  Mexico  had  changed  ;  and  the  appeals  to 
Charles  the  Second  of  Spain  rested  on  different  motives  from  those 
which  had  swayed  the  Emperor  Charles,  who  from  his  distant  throne 
lifted  Cortez  or  put  him  down  at  his  will. 

After  one  and  another  inefficient  scheme  for  the  conquest,  as  it  was 
called,  of  California,  a  royal  order  came  from  Mexico  to  Spain  that 
all  enterprises  in  that  direction  should  be  laid  aside.  At  this  mo 
ment  the  Jesuit  body,  hardly  yet  declining  from  the  maturity  of  its 
power,  was  urged  by  the  persons 
in  command  in  Mexico  to  take 
the  charge  of  California.  The 
Viceroy  offered  to  the  Jesuits  the 
necessary  sums,  to  be  paid  out  of 
the  king's  treasury,  if  they  would 
undertake  the  enterprise.  The 
Mexican  chapter  of  the  society 
was  convened  for  the  considera 
tion  of  the  proposal,  and  answered 
that  while  the  society  would  un 
dertake  the  spiritual  duty  of  fur 
nishing  missionaries,  they  saw 
great  inconveniences  in  undertak 
ing  the  temporal  charge  of  such  an 
enterprise,  and  declined.  The  gen 
eral  council  urged  it  again,  but 
again  the  society  refused.  The 
last  of  these  refusals  was  in  1686.  Portrait of  Philip 

Eusebio  Francisco  Kino,  a  brother  of  the  Jesuit  Society,  who  had 
come  from  Ingoldstadt  in  Bavaria,  in  pursuance  of  a  vow  made 
when  seemingly  at  the  point  of  death,  undertook,  almost  sin-  inCMto™ 
gle-handed,  the  regeneration  of  the  peninsula  of  California. 
To  his  efforts,  as  it  proved,  the  first  settlement  was  due  of  those  parts 
of  California  and  Arizona  which  now  belong  to  the  United  States.  It 
is  said  that  as  early  as  1658  he  had  been  connected  with  the  explora 
tions  of  Arizona.1  He  had  afterwards  been  engaged  in  the  examina 
tions  of  the  peninsula  of  California  made  by  order  of  the  government. 
In  1686  he  left  the  city  of  Mexico,  as  superior  of  the  province  of  So- 
nora,  the  Mexican  province  immediately  south  of  Arizona.1  In  1670, 
with  other  priests,  he  set  out  on  a  mission  on  the  Gila.  In  1672,  he 
began  a  mission  among  the  Yaquis.  Before  1679  he  and  his  compan 
ions  had  established  five  missions  among  Yaquis,  Opotes,  and  Papa- 

1  Cozzens's  Wonderful  Land  (Arizona),  p.  32.     Mr.  Cozzens  refers  to  MSS-  in  the  mon 
astery  of  Dolores.     Kino  accompanied  Admiral  Otondo  as  early  as  1648. 


of  Spain. 


588     SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

goes.1  On  the  left  bank  of  the  Gila,  he  established  Encarnacion  and 
San  Andres.  In  San  Andres  he  describes  one  of  the  "great  houses," 
four  stories  in  height,  which  recall  the  memories  of  Cibola.  His 
wishes  for  California  were  not  accomplished  until  1697,  when  Father 
Salvatierra  was  appointed  to  make  collections  for  a  mission  in  Lower 
California,  and  at  length  sailed  from  Hiagui  in  that  service  on  the 
10th  of  October. 

The  sedulous  efforts  by  which  he  and  his  companions  attempted  to 
civilize  and   Christianize  the   savages  of  that  peninsula,  do 

The  Califor- 

man  Mis-  not  belong  to  this  narrative.  But  as  a  consequence  of  these 
plans,  a  series  of  missionary  efforts  grew  up,  which  resulted 
in  the  first  civilization  of  the  State  known  as  California  or  the  Ameri 
can  Union,  the  limits  of  which  correspond  nearly  with  those  of  the 
province  of  Upper  California,  as  it  is  described  in  the  narratives  of 
Mexico.  The  friendly  relations  of  Father  Kino  in  Sonora  on  the 
eastern  side  of  the  Gulf  of  California,  with  Father  Salvatierra  on 
the  west  side,  led  constantly  to  mutual  offices  of  kindness  and  help ; 
and  the  history  of  the  two  regions  is  substantially  one  history  of  two 
provinces,  administered  in  the  same  spirit  and  under  the  same  gen 
eral  system.  In  one  expedition  of  Salvatierra,  he  passed  to  the  head 
of  the  gulf,  and  satisfied  himself  that  California  was  indeed  a  pen 
insula.  "  This  discovery,"  he  says,  "  we  owe  to  the  holy  virgin  of 
Loreto  ;  "  and  he  adds,  "  these  are  the  steps  by  which  within  a  few 
years  California  may  come  to  be  the  soul  of  this  kingdom,  the  main 
source  of  its  opulence,  the  scene  of  cheerful  industry  ;  and  accord 
ingly  I  conclude  that  you  will  charge  all  persons  that  they  continue 
to  assist  us  in  these  missions  of  Nuestra  Senora  de  Loreto  de  Cali- 
fornias."2  There  was  only  this  external  distinction  between  the 
missions  of  California  and  those  of  Sonora :  that  in  California  a  hand 
ful  of  soldiers  was  in  each  mission  placed  under  the  direction  of 
the  Fathers.  In  Sonora,  the  garrisons,  if  garrisons  there  were,  were 
directed  immediately  by  the  viceroy.  But  scarcely  any  difference  in 
result  seems  to  have  arisen  from  this  distinction.  It  must  be  under 
stood  that  the  word  Sonora,  in  the  history  of  that  country  at  that 
time,  includes  what  is  known  to  our  geographers  as  Arizona. 

Having  selected  a  point  for  a  mission,  the  fathers  began  immediately 
to  invite  and  induce  the  Indians  to  attend  the  daity  religious  services. 
As  soon  as  they  themselves  acquired  the  language  of  the  country, 
they  taught  the  natives  the  catechism  in  that  language.  By  way  of 
rewarding  those  who  attended  on  the  services,  the  fathers  served  out 
rations  to  them,  and  attempted  in  the  same  way  to  wean  all  the 

1  Noticias  Estadicas  del  Estado  de  Sonora,  by  Jose  Francisco  Velasco.    Mexico,  1 850. 

2  Veneffas,  vol.  i.,  p.  307.    English  translation. 


1697.] 


MISSIONS  IN   CALIFORNIA   AND   ARIZONA. 


589 


savages  from  the  habits  of  wanderers.  In  California  all  who  at 
tended  divine  service  were  wholly  supported  by  the  mission.  Every 
morning  and  night  they  received  an  allowance  of  "  atole,"  a  sort  of 
hominy  ;  at  noon  they  were  served  with  boiled  Indian  corn,  called 
pozoli,1  and  with  fresh  or  salt  meat  and  vegetables,  according  as  the 
mission  provided.  All  the  sick,  aged,  and  children  from  six  to  twelve, 
and  the  Indian  governor  of  the  village,  were  also  thus  provided  with 
food.  Beside  these,  a  weekly  allowance  of  the  same  amount,  was 
made,  to  such  Indians  of  the  rancherias  as  came  to  be  catechised  and 
as  attended  the  divine  service  on  Sunday.  The  missionary  priest  also 


The   Mission   Indians. 


clothed  all  his  parishioners  with 
coarse  cloth  from  Old  .Spain,  and 
provided  cloaks  and  blankets. 
Meanwhile  they  were  instructed 
in  managing  the  fields  and  in 
irrigation  ;  and  as  they  would 
not  save  the  crops,  Venegas  says, 

the  fathers  preserved  them  for  their  regular  use.  Wine,  which  was  at 
an  early  date  produced  in  the  Calif ornian  missions,  was  the  only 
product  withheld  from  them,  the  fathers  early  learning  that  such 
was  the  only  method  to  save  them  from  drunkenness.2 

The  effect  produced  by  such  a  system  would  not  immediately  ap 
pear.    But,  after  a  generation,  a  body  of  children  had  grown  Effectof  the 
to  be  men  and  women,  without  any  habits  of  the  chase  or  of  Missious- 
war,  and  with  the  habit  of  farm  labor  and  regular  attendance  on  the 

1  Cozzens's  Wondfrftd  Land,  37.  2   Venef/as,  i.  432. 


590     SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

rites  of  the  church.  The  missions  were,  in  many  instances,  very  small 
establishments.  One  father  with  one  soldier  might  be  all  the  white 
population.  The  father  then  appointed  one  Indian  as  governor  of  the 
village,  one  to  the  charge  of  the  church,  and  a  third  to  be  the  catechist 
of  those  who  were  undergoing  instruction.  So  simple  a  system  wa& 
considered  sufficient.  In  the  absence  of  the  father  the  soldier  acted 
as  his  vicegerent,  having  "  an  eye  to  everything  "  as  is  the  expressive 
phrase  of  Venegas.1  He  could  seize  delinquents,  and  mildly  punish 
them,  "  unless  in  capital  cases,"  which  were  referred  to  the  captain  of 
the  garrison.  The  minor  punishments  were  more  or  less  lashes ;  the 
severer  punishment  was  imprisonment  in  the  stocks.  The  first  care 
in  every  mission  was  for  the  education  of  the  children.  Some  of  them 
were  selected  from  every  California!!  mission  to  be  sent  to  Loreto,  the 
chief  station.  They  were  instructed  in  reading,  writing,  and  singing, 
and  in  the  Spanish  language,  and  afterwards  as  they  showed  ability 
were  promoted  to  be  churchwardens  or  catechists  in  the  several 
"  rancherias." 

It  is  mentioned  as  an  exceptional  instance  in  these  plans,  that,  on 
the  peninsula  of  California,  Father  Ugarte  taught  his  Indians  to  spin 
wool  and  weave  it,  himself  making  the  distaffs,  wheels,  and  looms. 
He  added  the  industry  of  making  sail-cloth  from  hemp.  This  was  a 
violation  of  the  whole  colonial  system  of  Spain,  which  attempted  to 
compel  the  colonies  to  obtain  all  their  manufactures  from  Europe. 
Venegas,  the  Jesuit  historian,  is  eloquent  in  his  description  of  the 
ruinous  effects  of  this  policy  in  the  province  of  Sonora.  The  cause. of 
the  poverty  of  Sonora,  he  says,  is  its  want  of  almost  all  necessary 
manufactures  and  trades.  While  other  European  nations  encourage 
these  in  their  colonies,  Spain  depresses  them.  But  the  immediate  con 
sequence  of  manufacture,  he  says,  is  the  promotion  of  agriculture,  for 
the  providing  of  the  raw  material  and  for  feeding  the  artisan.  The 
policy  of  Cortez,  therefore,  was  to  encourage  manufacture,  and  this 
policy  was  continued  by  some  of  his  successors.  But  his  policy  hav 
ing  been  overturned,  poor  Sonora  must  receive  from  Mexico  the  cloth 
which  had  been  bought  in  Cadiz,  after  it  had  been  carried  thither 
from  Holland. 

As  the  expense  of  the  Jesuit  missions  involved  the  feeding  and 
Their  sup-  clothing  of  all  the  converts,  neophytes,  and  catechumens,  it 
was  of  course  considerable,  and,  so  long  as  any  mission  was 
in  its  infancy,  it  must  be  supplied  by  contributions  from  the  faithful 
all  over  the  world.  At  this  point  the  literary  ability  of  the  Jesuit 
brethren  was  called  upon,  and  the  attractive  histories  of  their  mis 
sions,  published  through  Europe,  assisted  their  indefatigable  collections 

1  Venegas,  vol.  i.,  435. 


1705.]  ARIZONA.  591 

of  money.  The  Fathers  never  founded  a  new  mission  unless  some 
benefactor  had  endowed  it  with  ten  thousand  dollars.  This  sum 
furnished,  at  five  per  cent,  interest,  five  hundred  dollars,  which  was 
allowed  for  the  support  of  the  missionary  and  his  unavoidable  ex 
penses  with  the  Indians.  A  royal  grant  of  three  hundred  dollars  for 
each  missionary  seems  to  have  provided  in  part  for  other  missions. 
Venegas,  the  historian  of  Jesuit  missions,  explains  still  farther,  that 
the  funds  for  the  first  seven  missions  were  invested  in  farms  near  the 
city  of  Mexico,  and  that  the  necessary  supplies  of  cattle  and  of  corn 
were  furnished  from  these  farms.  To  the  agent  who  had  these  farms 
in  charge  the  king's  payment  was  made,  of  eighteen  thousand  dol 
lars  a  year  for  the  payment  of  the  garrisons  and  of  the  seamen  em 
ployed  by  the  missions.  From  these  funds,  and  from  the  products  of 
the  farms,  were  paid  everything  necessary  for  worship,  for  the  build 
ing  and  repair  of  the  church  and  for  the  maintenance  not  of  the 
priest  only,  but  of  his  people.  It  is  interesting,  at  this  time,  to  ob 
serve,  that  in  Salvatierra's  report  of  the  25th  of  May,  1705,  he  says, 
"  in  those  parts  of  the  country  that  are  conquered  and  discovered 
there  are  very  promising  appearances  of  mines." 

These  anticipations  were  fully  confirmed  as  that  century  went  on. 
The  acquisitions  from  mines  in  Arizona,  as  we  now  call  it,  and  from 
Sonora  cannot  be  accurately  distinguished.  But  it  is  certain  that 
Arizona  well  earned  its  name,  —  which  is  derived  from  Arizuma,  a 
name  said  to  be  given  by  the  king  himself  to  denote  its  richness  in 
silver.  As  early  as  1683,  the  attorney  of  the  king  brought  a  suit  in 
Sonora  to  recover  a  mass  of  virgin  silver  weighing  twenty-eight  hun 
dred  pounds,  which  he  claimed  as  a  "  curiosity,"  although  it  was 
found  in  the  mine  of  an  explorer  named  Gandera.1  A  wide  desert 
separated  the  silver- bearing  parts  of  Arizona  from  the  Pacific.  A 
long  transport  by  land  separated  them  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  But 
the  traces  of  old  mining  operations  and  the  records  of  the  viceroyalty 
of  Mexico  alike  show,  that  in  face  of  these  discouragements,  very 
large  mining  operations  were  conducted  in  the  seventeenth  and  eight 
eenth  centuries  in  the  frontier  provinces  which  are  now  States  and 
Territories  of  the  United  States. 

The  tranquil  arrangements  of  the  Jesuits,  which  attempted  to  sub 
stitute  for  savage  life  the  proprieties  and  decorum  of  pueblos  Difficultieg 
of  men  and  women  trained  to  act  like  obedient  children,  were  byCt°hTMue-d 
constantly  broken  in  upon  by  savage  uprisings,  which   the  slonanes- 
fathers  considered  as  so  many  triumphs  of  the   devil.     As  early  as 
1695  the  Janos,  Jocomes,  and  Apaches  were  at  war.     The  Conchos 
Indians  joined  in  the  fray,  which  was  for  the  time   suppressed  by 

1  Cozzens,  as  above,  p.  41. 


592    SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS   AND  COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

the  energetic  efforts  of  Antonio  de  Soils,  the  military  commandant. 
But  none  the  less  on  all  sides  of  the  frontier  were  there  fears  of  a 
general  rising.  An  Indian  called  Pablo  Quihue  was  considered  the 
head  of  a  conspiracy.  He  had  been  the  governor,  under  the  scheme 
just  now  described,  of  the  mission  of  Santa  Maria  Basieraca,  but  he 
now  proved  faithless  to  his  masters.  He  told  all  the  natives  that  in 
the  last  sixty  years  they  had  gradually  given  away  all  their  lands 
to  the  Spaniards ;  that  the  fathers,  instead  of  acknowledging  such 
gifts  gratefully,  had  seized  the  lands  and  enslaved  the  people.  Lands, 
flocks,  herds,  houses,  women,  and  children  were  all  at  the  disposal 
of  the  priests.  "  Do  they  tell  you  that  their  soldiers  protect  you  ? 
Do  they  tell  you  that  they  will  defend  you  ?  Do  they  tell  you  that 
you  live  in  true  religion,  in  obedience  to  the  king  and  in  peaceful 
life?  So  they  told  us  when  they  came,  and  we,  like  fools,  received 
them  as  men  who  came  from  heaven  to  bless  us.  What  has  come 
of  these  magnificent  promises  ?  You  can  see.  The  Apaches,  the 
Jocomes,  the  Janos,  have  for  years  desolated  our  fields  and  stolen  our 
flocks.  Have  the  fathers  protected  us  ?  Have  their  soldiers  helped 

us ;  have  they  not  been  our  ruin  ? 
Have  more  Sonoras,  Pimas,  Tarau- 
mares,  and  Conchos  fallen  under  the 
arrows  of  the  Apaches,  than  have 
perished  under  the  cruelty  of  the 
Spaniards.  At  the  least  alarm,  they 
charge  us,  whom  they  have  enslaved, 
with  being  apostates,  traitors  to  God 
and  to  the  king,  enemies  of  our  coun 
try  and  allies  and  accomplices  of  the 
Apaches !  They  show  more  enmity 
Indian  Council  (from  La  Hontan).  to  us  than  to  them  !  Do  they  treat 

them  as  cruelly  as  they  treat  us  ?  Have  the  Apaches  ever  seen  their 
faces  ?  And  have  they  ever  hurt  us  so  much,  as  these  protectors  of 
ours?"  Such  is  the  remarkable  speech,  which  Allegre,  a  Jesuit  histo 
rian,  is  frank  enough  to  put  into  the  mouth  of  this  rebel.1 

So  well  founded  were  his  arguments,  so  imposing  the  outside  force 
Anunsuc-     °^  ^ue  Apaches,  and  so  hateful  the  Spaniards,  that  his  hopes 
dianrebeT-     might  have  been  crowned  with  success,  but  that,  by  an  ac 
cident  so  often  repeated  in  savage   annals,   the  conspiracy 
broke  out  too  early  in  one  quarter.      The  Cuquiarachi,  Cuchuta,  and 
Teurcicatzi  broke  into  rebellion  before  his  plans  were  ripe.     The  peo 
ple  of  these  places  seized  the  ornaments  of  the  churches  and  fled  with 
them  into  the  mountains.     This  precipitancy  disarranged  all  the  plans 
1  Allegre,  iii.,  93  :  Mexican  edition. 


1697.] 


LNDIAN   INVASIONS. 


593 


A 


of  Quihue.  The  rebellion  was  suppressed  ;  and  the  fathers  were  able 
to  praise  the  loyalty  of  riiany  of  the  pueblos,  whose  people  joined  with 
the  Spanish  soldiery  in  the  movements  necessary,  and  in  one  case  sus 
tained  a  battle  which  lasted  from  day  to  night,  without  their  assist 
ance. 

In  1697  new  invasions  from  the  Apaches  and  Jocomes  wasted  So- 
nora  ;  and  again  the  suspicions  of  the  Spaniards  were  roused 
against  the  people  of    their  own  flocks,  including  Pimeria, 

.      .  r  .         TM  Theinvad- 

as  the  missions  among  the  r  imos  began  to  be  called  at  that  «*  re 

time.     It  was  true  that  the  Pimos  suffered  as  much  as  the 

Spaniards,  or  more,  but  they  fell  under  the  suspicion  which  in  all  col 

onies,  English,   Spanish,   or   French,   has  always   hovered  over  con 

verted  Indians.     An  inspection  by  a  Spanish  officer  wholly  relieved 

them    from   this    suspicion.      It    proved    that    they    had    beaten    the 

Apaches  in  fight,  as 

they  do  to  this  day, 

and  were  in  no  way 

entangled    with 

them.      His   report 

estimates  the  num 

bers  of  the  Opas  and 

Maricopas  as  about 

4,000.     He    speaks 

of   their   aqueducts 

and     fertile     land, 

their  crops  of  wheat 

and  houses  of  adobe, 

much  as  a  traveller 

of  to-day  might  do. 

But  it  must  be  re 

membered  that  they 

then  occupied  a  site  lower  down  the  Gila  River  than  that  which  they 

live  upon  to-day.1     At  length,  on  the  30th  of  March,  the  chief  of  the 

Quiburi,  one  of  the  "  reduced  "  or  converted  tribes,  struck  a  fortu 

nate  blow  with  his  people  upon  the  marauders  and  wholly  defeated 

them.      By  this  blow,  rather  than  from  any  action  of  the  Spanish 

troops,   as   would    appear,   the  tranquillity   of   the  missions  was  for 

some  time  assured.     In  a  pastoral  visit  made  to  the  northern  stations 

at  this  time  Father  Kino  made  an  observation  of  latitude  at  St.  Ra 

fael  de  Actun,  which  fixes  that  place  as  in  the  parallel  of  32°  30'  45" 

north.     He  frequently  alludes  in  his  letters  to  the  certainty  that  Cal 

ifornia  is  a  peninsula,  as  it  had  been  pronounced  by  Cortez  and  his 

1  Emory's  report,  on  the  authority  of  Kit  Carson. 
VOL.  ii.  38 


msms*fi 

California   Indians  catching   Salmon. 


594     SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

contemporaries.  The  later  geographers,  for  a  long  time,  insisted  on 
marking  it  as  a  long  island  ;  and  it  was  long  before  the  intelligent 
assertions  of  the  Jesuit  Fathers,  though  founded  on  personal  observa 
tions,  were  attended  to  by  the  map-makers.  In  January,  1699,  on 
one  of  these  tours  of  inspection,  Fathers  Kino  and  Gilg  met  five  hun 
dred  Yumas,  Opas,  and  Cocomaricopas  at  a  point  three  leagues  above 
the  junction  of  the  Gila  and  Colorado.  These  people  had  traditions 
of  the  arrival  of  Spaniards  from  the  east,  which  probably  referred  to 
the  party  of  Onate.  They  told  of  a  visit  from  a  white  woman  whom 
the  Fathers  supposed  to  be  an  enthusiast  named  Maria  de  Jesus  Agre- 
da,  who  had  gone  out  alone  as  early  as  1630,  among  the  savages. 


c 


Junction  of  the  Gila  and  Colorado  Rivers. 


These  people  also  said  that  at  the  north  there  lived  white  men  who 
wore  clothes,  who  at  times  came  armed  to  the  Colorado,  and  brought 
goods  in  exchange  for  skins.  This  can  only  allude  to  some  expedition 
of  French  traders,  of  which  we  have  no  account,  or  possibly  to  the 
expedition  from  Boston,  already  alluded  to,  which  is  said  to  have  pre 
ceded  by  a  year  the  expedition  of  La  Salle. 

So  far  at  least,  as  their  written  history  goes,  the  flourishing  condi 
tion  of  the  Pimeria,  which  was  the  result  of  the  Jesuit 
labors  in  Arizona,  ended  with  the  death  of  Father  Kino  in 
the  year  1711.  This  remarkable  man,  one  of  the  most  suc 
cessful  and  enterprising  of  apostles,  had  been  a  professor  of  math 
ematics  in  the  University  of  Ingolstadt  in  Bavaria.  By  a  divine  call 


Death  of 

Father 

Kino. 


1711.]  DECAY   OF   THE   JESUIT   MISSIONS.  595 

he  was  led  to  abandon  his  professorship  and  to  enter  on  the  work  of 
preaching  the  gospel  to  the  heathen.  His  indomitable  spirit,  his  cour 
age  and  adventure,  led  him  to  such  successes,  as  have  been  described. 
His  zeal  constantly  outran  the  slower  notions  of  the  Mexican  Vice 
roys,  and  he  was  frequently  in  conflict  with  them  and  with  other  au 
thorities.  It  was  only  after  long  delay  that  his  plans  for  the  reduc 
tion,  as  it  was  called,  of  California,  were  adopted  ;  and  he  was  fre 
quently  held  back  in  his  undertakings  in  his  beloved  Pimeria.  It 
is  said  that  he  himself  baptized  more  than  forty  thousand  infidels.  — 
and  that  he  would  have  baptized  many  thousand  more  had  the  zeal  of 
the  church  behind  him  been  sufficient  to  provide  them  with  teachers 
and  ministers.  San  Xavier  del  Bac,  as  it  now  appears,  gives  an  idea 
of  the  external  appearance  of  the  churches  he  founded.  The  people  of 


The    Mission  of   San    Xavier  del    Bac. 


Arizona  believe  this  building  to  be  the  very  same  which  was  erected 
under  his  direction.  In  this  temple  the  worship  of  the  Catholic  church 
is  still  maintained  by  a  handful  of  Papajo  Indians. 

His  successor  was  Father  Augustin  de  Campos.  But  he  could  not 
prevent  the  decay  of  the  missions.  Probably  the  enthusiasm  Decayof  the 
of  Europe  and  Mexico  had  been  turned  in  other  directions,  B 
and  it  was  impossible  to  provide  ecclesiastical  chiefs  for  these  frontier 
settlements.  The  slow  death  settling  upon  Spain,  —  attributed  by 
most  students  of  history  to  the  inevitable  lethargy  attendant  on  Jesuit 
counsels,  —  hindered  the  aid  which  the  Spanish  monarchs  themselves 
often  tried  to  give  the  missions.  Nothing  is  more  amusing,  if  it  were 
not  at  the  same  time  pathetic,  than  the  narrative  by  Venegas  of  the 
ingenious  ways  in  which  the  officials  of  the  crown  resisted  and  de 
feated  the  pious  orders  of  their  kings.  For  many  years,  the  Jesuit 
historian  tells  us,  the  people  of  the  villages  maintained  their  crops  and 
built  their  houses  in  a  civilized  way.  But  as  time  passed,  they  fell 


596    SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

back  toward  the  habits  of  savage  life.  Many  of  the  villages  had 
no  Spanish  ministers  till  1731,  when  a  sudden  revival  for  a  mo 
ment  filled  the  posts  anew.  Dolores  and  Remedies  were  entirely 
unpeopled,  and  many  others  suffered  from  the  invasions  of  the 
Apaches. 

In  1740  a  rebellion  broke  out,  more  critical  than  any  before,  led  by 
an  "apostate"  Indian  named  Muni,  one  of  the  Yaquis, — 
dian  rebel-  another  named  Baltazar,  and  another  named  Juan  Calixto. 
Succeeding  in  Mayo  they  passed  to  Cedros  and  Bayorca. 
Muni  was  at  one  moment  taken  prisoner,  but  having  been  liberated 
he  was  so  far  encouraged  that  with  his  Yaquis  he  continued  his  rav 
ages.  So  efficient  was  this  rebellion  that  the  villages  of  the  valley  of 
the  Gila  were  wholly  cut  off  from  Mexican  inspection,  and,  indeed, 
they  have  remained  in  much  that  condition  ever  since.  In  1744 
Father  Keeler,  who  attempted  to  revisit  them,  was  permitted  to  pass 
no  farther  than  the  first  village  of  the  Moquis.  A  second  revolt  in 
1750,  under  one  Luis,  did  still  more  to  break  up  the  missions  of  the 
southern  part  of  Sonora,  which  now  constitutes  the  Mexican  .state  of 
that  name,  and  well-nigh  completed  the  isolation  of  Pimeria  in 
the  valley  of  the  Gila.  The  authority  of  Luis  over  the  Pimeria  was 
not  broken  until  the  year  1753,  when  a  new  governor  seized  him  and 
put  him  in  prison,  where  he  soon  died  of  "melancholy."  His  relative 
took  refuge  with  the  Seris,  a  barbarous  tribe  on  the  Gulf  of  Califor 
nia,  always  their  enemies  till  now.  Some  fathers  were  despatched, 
after  this  success,  to  renew  the  abandoned  missions  ;  but  it  would  ap 
pear  that  their  decay  could  not  be  arrested. 

Their  history  is  at  the  bottom  the  same  as  that  of  the  Jesuit  mis 
sions  in  Paraguay,  which  have  attracted  more  of  the  attention  of  stu 
dents  of  social  order.  By  these  experiments  it  is  proved  possible  to 
The  lesson  educate  savages  in  a  state  of  tutelage,  and  to  maintain  the 
theseha£y  outward  external  aspects  of  exquisite  order  and  simplicity, 
tempts.  rphe  lover  of  tranquillity,  delighted  with  such  social  order 
when  he  sees  it  contrasted  with  the  strifes  of  a  more  active  world, 
describes  the  pretty  scene  as  an  Arcadia,  if  he  be  of  a  classical 
bent ;  or  as  the  kingdom  of  heaven  on  earth,  if  he  be  trained  in 
another  school.  But  the  moment  a  storm  comes,  or  the  moment  the 
mild  tyranny  of  the  spiritual  father  is  removed,  it  proves  that  this 
people,  so  gentle  and  so  simple,  have  not  been  educated  to  the  care 
of  themselves.  They  have  been  taught  to  obey,  in  a  false  school, 
which  has  not  taught  them  either  to  direct  or  to  command.  And  the 
lovely  village,  so  charming  to  the  traveller  who  sees  it  from  the 
outside  for  a  day  or  two,  is  swept  away,  like  a  vision  of  the  night, 
and  leaves  almost  as  little  trace  behind. 


1767.] 


EXPULSION    OF   THE  JESUITS. 


597 


The  expul- 

sionptthe 


FOB  the  missions  of  Pimeria  and  of  Upper  California,  the  final  blow 
was  struck,  —  so  far  as  Jesuit  supervision  went,  —  on  the 
25th  of  June,  1767.  "A  little  before  the  break  of  day," 
says  the  historian,  with  a  certain  pathos,  "the  decree  for 
the  expulsion  of  the  Jesuits  went  forth,  with  the  great  seal  itself, 
from  the  council  chamber  of  Charles  III."  In  the  endless  intrigues, 
in  which  the  history  of  the  com 
pany  of  Jesuits  is  involved,  per 
haps  from  its  own  nature,  the 
balance  had  gone  against  it  heav 
ily,  at  that  moment,  in  the  dying 
court  of  Spain.  King  Charles  was 
so  eager  to  secure  the  execution 
of  his  decree  that  by  an  autograph 
letter  to  the  viceroy  of  Mexico 
he  notified  his  will,  and  the  ex 
pulsion  of  the  Jesuits  from  Mex 
ico  followed  with  much  more  ra 
pidity  than  had  attended  the  ex 
ecution  of  many  of  the  decrees 
in  their  favor.  The  accounts 
given  by  the  Jesuit  writers  and 
their  enemies  as  to  the  origin  of 
this  decree,  belong  rather  to  the 
history  of  Europe  than  to  that  of 

T>.  •  T,  j  ,         ,i          • 

rimeria.  It  was  due  to  the  in 
fluence  of  Choiseul  and  Aranda,  who  seem  to  have  succeeded  in  con 
vincing  Charles  that  the  Jesuits  had  circulated  slanders  regarding  his 
own  birth.  Certain  is  it  that  the  blow  was  sudden  and  unexpected. 


Portrait  of  Charles  III.  of  Spain, 


When,  in  1683,  the  French  explorer,  La  Salle,  addressed  to  the 
king  of  France  his  memoir  on  the  foundation  of  a  colony  in  New  Mexico 
Louisiana,  the  silver  mines  of  New  Mexico  were  so  well  es-  and  Texas- 
tablished,  that  the  prime  reason  suggested  by  him  for  his  enterprise, 
was  the  ease  with  which  the  French  might  seize  the  product  of  those 
mines,  and  bring  it  down  the  Red  River.  After  two  hundred  years, 
that  route  is  not  yet  taken  by  the  silver  of  New  Mexico  and  the 
neighboring  regions.  But  it  may  yet  prove  true,  that  by  a  railway 
through  the  valley  of  the  Red  River  these  stores  of  silver,  the  magni 
tude  of  which  has  deranged  the  balance  of  the  coinage  of  the  world,, 
may  find  their  way  to  their  market.  The  Spanish  government  was 
as  quick  as  La  Salle  to  note  the  danger  to  their  mines  from  his  enter- 


598    SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS  AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

prise.  When  his  unfortunate  colony  landed,  in  fact  within  the.  limits 
of  our  State  of  Texas,1  in  Matagorda  Bay,  which  they  called  the  Bay 
of  St.  Bernard,  the  nearest  Spanish  positions  on  the  gulf  were  the 
port  of  Panuco,  near  the  present  Tampico,  more  than  two  hundred 
leagues  distant,  and  El  Paso  on  the  Rio  Grande.  The  Spanish  settlers 
had  been  driven  from  New  Mexico  by  the  rising  of  1680,  nor  was 
possession  regained  until  1695.  Early  in  1686  the  viceroy  of  Mexico, 
Laguna,  was  informed  of  the  French  expedition  of  La  Salle.  But 
its  destination  was  unknown ;  and  the  historian  of  Texas  believes  that 
the  Spaniards  learned  from  the  Camanche  Indians  of  the  colony  in  St. 
Bernard's  Bay.  A  council  held  in  Mexico  determined  on  an  expedi 
tion  of  discovery  and  repression,  and  to  this  expedition  Captain  Alonzo 
de  Leon  was  appointed,  under  the  title  of  Governor  of  Coahuila. 

De  Leon  arrived  at  Fort  St.  Louis  on  the  22d  of  April,  with  his 
Expedition  command  of  one  hundred  men.  He  found  there  the  wreck 
of  DC  Leon.  o£  ^ne  un£Ortunate  French  colony  ;  and,  learning  from  the 
Indians  that  there  were  French  stragglers  among  the  Cenis,  he  visited 
them  and  found  two  of  the  murderers  of  La  Salle,  whom  he  took  pris 
oners.  They  were  sent  to  Mexico  and  thence  to  Spain,  and  then  sent 
back  to  Mexico  and  condemned  to  the  mines. 

De  Leon  made  a  favorable  report  as  to  Texas,  and  it  was  determined 
to  establish  a  mission  at  Fort  St.  Louis.  In  1690  this  was  done.  The 
king  approved  of  this  proceeding,  saying  it  was  of  importance  for  the 
security  of  his  dominions  in  New  Mexico.  Venegas,  the  historian  of 
California,  expresses  a  mild  regret  that  the  necessities  of  the  crown 
diverted  to  this  enterprise  treasure  which  he  is  sure  could  have  been 
well  used  on  the  Pacific  shore.  But  the  French  were  too  near  for 
delay.  It  would  indeed  seem  as  if,  till  this  time,  the  policy  of  Spain 
had  been  that  ascribed  to  the  ancient  Persian  prince,  who  kept  a  por 
tion  of  desert  three  days  journey  in  width  between  his  own  empire 
and  many  others.  But  Texas  was  then  a  desert  far  more  than  three 
days  wide.  If  such  were  the  policy,  it  gave  way  before  the  danger 
that  other  colonists  might  inhabit  the  desert.  In  1691,  Don  Domingo 
Teran  was  appointed  governor  of  Coahuila  and  Texas,  and  with  fifty 
soldiers  and  seven  lay  friars,  proceeded  to  establish  missions  and  mili 
tary  posts.  These  they  began,  but  in  1693  they  were  all  abandoned, 
in  face  of  hostile  Indians,  and  the  king  approved  of  the  abandonment. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  therefore,  Spain  had  no 
posts  in  Texas.  On  the  west  side  of  the  Rio  Grande,  the  posts  still 
known  as  Presidio  del  Norte  and  El  Paso  were  maintained  as  stations 
on  the  road  to  New  Mexico. 

When  in  1712,  Louis  XIV.  gave  to  Antoine  Crozat  a  grant  of 

1  See  chap.  xxi. 


1714.] 


ATTEMPTS   TO   COLONIZE   TEXAS. 


599 


Louisiana,  it  was  so  phrased  as  to  extend  his  boundaries  to  the  Rio 
Grande  on  the  west.  In  1714,  he  sent  out  Huchereau  St.  Expedjtion 
Denis,  a  young  man  of  noble  family,  on  an  expedition  to  of  st- Dems- 
the  western  part  of  his  new  domain.  Leaving  Natchitoches  on  the 
Red  River,  where  a  trading  post  had  already  been  established,  St. 
Denis  crossed  Texas,  and  in  August  reached  the  mission  of  St.  John 
Baptist  on  the  Rio  Grande,  where  he  was  hospitably  received  by  the 
commander.  But,  so  soon  as  Don  Gaspardo  Anaya,  the  Governor  of 
Coahuila,  heard  of  his  arrival  he  arrested  St.  Denis  and  one  of  his 


El  Paso. 


companions  and  sent  them  to  Mexico,  where  they  were  imprisoned  for 
six  months.  After  two  years,  however,  he  returned  to  Mobile,  having 
escaped  or  been  released.  He  married  the  daughter  of  Villeseas,  the 
governor  of  St.  John  Baptist,  and  from  that  day  began  a  system  of 
smuggling  between  the  Mexican  territories  and  those  of  Louisiana, 
which  has  continued  to  this  time.1 

Those  movements  alarmed  the  Spaniards  again,  and  the  Duke  of 
Linares,  now  Viceroy  of  Mexico,  made  new  efforts  to  prose-  Spani8h  at_ 
cute  the  colonization  of  Texas.     A  new  mission  was  estab-  eoZ^e*0 
lished  in  the  Bay  of  St.  Bernard,  and  one  among  the  Adaes,   Texas- 
only  fifteen  miles  from  Natchitoches.     It  was  therefore  within  the  pres 
ent  line  of  the  State  of  Louisiana.     A  mission  called  Dolores  was 

1  Yoaknm,  Hist.  Texas,  vol.  i.,  48.     American  State  Papers,  vol.  xii.     Mr.  Gayarre  has 
made  a  romance  from  these  adventures. 


600     SPANISH  EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.  [CHAP.  XXIV. 

established  west  of  the  Sabine,  and  San  Antonio  de  Valero  was  placed 
on  the  right  bank  of  the  San  Pedro,  about  three  fourths  of  a  mile 
from  the  present  church  at  San  Antonio.  The  present  position  of 
San  Antonio  was  soon  after  chosen  instead  of  the  first,  for  reasons 
which  recommend  themselves  to  every  visitor  to  that  beautiful  city. 
Soon  after,  a  mission  was  established  near  the  present  town  of  Nacog- 
doches,  and  a  sixth  near  San  Augustine.  The  establishment  of  these 
missions  was  intrusted  to  a  captain  named  Don  Domingo  Ramon. 
When  he  was  at  the  Adaes  he  visited  San  Denis  at  Natchitoches,  and 
was  hospitably  received. 


San    Antonio,  Texas. 


The  Texan  missions  were 
from  the  first  in  the  hands  of 
Franciscan  fathers.  But  the 
methods  of  these  fathers  were 
not  materially  different  from 
those  which  we  have  described  as  practised  by  the  Jesuits.  At  each 
presidio  or  mission  there  was  a  garrison,  with  a  military  commandant  ; 
but  these  garrisons  were  sometimes  very  small.  A  plaza  de  armas, 
surrounded  by  the  church,  barracks,  storehouses,  and  other  public 
buildings,  was  the  centre  of  the  establishment.  Around  these  huts 
were  built  for  the  "  reduced  "  or  converted  Indians. 

After  the  declaration  of  war  of  1718  between  France  and  Spain  had 
conflicts  be-  been  heard  of  on  this  distant  frontier,  the  little  garrisons 
made  an  attempt  to  imitate  the  contentions  of  their  masters 
-n  Europe.  The  Frenchmen,  La  Harpe  and  St.  Denis,  broke 
up  the  Spanish  posts  and  drove  the  garrisons  from  the  lesser  stations 
to  San  Antonio.  The  Marquis  de  Aguayo,  the  Spanish  Governor 
of  New  Estremadura,  collected  five  hundred  men  to  drive  them  back, 
but  they  had  already  retreated,  and  Don  Aguayo  reestablished  the 
garrisons  J  which  they  had  put  to  flight. 

1  Am.  State  Papers,  vol.  xii. 


Spanish. 


1728.]  THE   SPANIARDS  IN   TEXAS.  601 

In  the  same  year  Don  Martin  d'Alarcone  had  been  appointed 
Governor  of  Texas.  After  the  success  of  Aguayo's  expedition,  a  larger 
army  was  fitted  out  against  the  French  settlements  on  the  Upper  Mis 
sissippi.  The  Spaniards  lost  their  route,  and  falling  in  with  the  Mis 
souri  Indians,  mistook  them  for  Osages.  They  had  relied  on  the  as 
sistance  of  the  Osages  against  the  French.  Now,  the  Missouris  were 
the  firm  allies  of  the  French.  The  Missouris  had  the  address  to 
encourage  the  mistake,  till  they  had  received  from  the  Spaniards  pis 
tols,  sabres,  hatchets,  and  what  the  narrator  speaks  of  as  fifteen  hun 
dred  muskets,  a  number  which  is  incredible.  With  these  arms,  how 
ever,  the  Indians  massacred  all  the  Spaniards  except  the  priest,  and 
this  misfortune  ended  the  Spanish  claims  on  the  Upper  Mississippi.1 
The  French  home  government,  in  the  meanwhile,  ordered  Bienville  to 
establish  a  new  post  in  Matagorda  Bay,  which  he  did.  But  the  de 
tachment  was  soon  withdrawn  on  account  of  the  hostility  of  the 
Indians. 

A  royal  order  of  1721  directed  the  Spanish  authorities  to  attempt 
no  further  hostilities  against  the  French,  but  to  fortify  the 
bay  of  St.  Bernard  and  other  important  posts.     A  garrison   progress  of 
called  "our  Lady  of  Loretto  "  was  accordingly  established  Spanish 
at  St.  Bernard.     In  the  next  year  the  four  garrisons  which 
defended  Texas,  consisted  of  one  hundred  men  at  the  Adaes  Mission, 
twenty-five  at  the  Neches,  ninety  at  the  bay  of  St.  Bernard,  and  fifty- 
three  at  San  Antonio.    There  were  no  colonists,  excepting  the  fathers, 
at  the  missions,  but  Aguayo,  before  returning  to  his  own  department, 
recommended  the  introduction  of  colonists.     So  soon  as  he  departed, 
the  forbidden  trade  between  French  and  Spanish  frontiersmen  began 
again,  and  when,  in  the  war  of  1726,  France  and  Spain  were  in  alli 
ance,  this  trade  gained  new  activity.2  ,  « 

In  1728  the  Spanish  government  ordered  the  transportation  of  four 
hundred  families  from  the  Canary  Islands  to  Texas.  The  garrisons 
were  reduced  to  one  hundred  and  fifty-three  men  in  the  whole  prov 
ince.  Of  the  four  hundred  families  ordered,  thirteen  arrived  at  San 
Antonio,  and  this  new  population  was  a  stimulus  to  the  missionary 
efforts.  In  1732  the  Spanish  troops  defeated  the  Apaches,  and  this 
victory  gave  security  to  the  colony.  In  1734  Sandoval  took  the  place 
of  Cevallos  as  governor,  and  again  checked  the  depredations  of  the 
savages.  While  he  was  Governor,  St.  Denis  removed  the  French  gar 
rison  of  Natchitoches  to  a  point  west  of  the  Red  River.  Sandoval 
having  been  charged  with  conniving  with  this,  a  long  litigation  took 
place,  —  with  the  interminable  slowness  of  Spanish  procedures,  —  in 

1  Gayarre's  Hist,  of  Louisiana,  vol.  i.,  p.  264. 

2  Yoakum,  i.,  77. 


802   SPANISH   EXPLORATIONS   AND   COLONIZATION.   [CHAP.  XXIV. 

which  he  and  Franquis,  his  successor,  were  engaged.  In  1740  Sando- 
val  was  thrown  into  prison,  in  one  of  the  consequences  of  this  charge, 
but  with  the  arrival  of  a  new  governor,  he  was  liberated. 

In  1744  the  European  population  of  Texas  did  not  exceed  fifteen 
hundred,  divided  mostly  between  Adaes  and  San  Antonio ;  a  few 
were  at  Bahia,  and  a, few  at  San  Saba.  The  settlements  to  the  south 
of  Texas  made  but  very  little  progress,  and  the  old  policy  of  Spain,  to 
leave  a  desert  between  her  provinces  and  her  neighbors,  was  in  no  way 
violated. 


The  Yucca  Tree  of  New  Mexico. 


